A.Word.A.Day --calumniate

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Aug 1, 2016

This week’s theme
Verbs

This week’s words
calumniate
floccipend
exonerate
foozle
propitiate

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

The linguist Michel Thomas once said, “If you know how to handle the verbs, you know how to handle the language. Everything else is just vocabulary.” Thomas was talking about conjugation, but verbs do bring sentences to life. A verb can be the strongest part of a sentence.

This week we share with you five verbs that will help you handle the language better.

calumniate

PRONUNCIATION:

(kuh-LUHM-nee-ayt)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To make false statements about someone maliciously.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin calumniari (to accuse falsely). Earliest documented use: 1554.

USAGE:

“The APC demonized President Jonathan as a matter of course. They calumniated him with the constancy of a devout man’s daily prayers.”
Chuks Iloegbunam; Why Fayemi Was Trashed; The Sun (Lagos, Nigeria); Jun 25, 2014.

See more usage examples of calumniate in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event -- in the living act, the undoubted deed -- there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1 Aug 1819-1891)

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