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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-314/
- Published: 2025-06-17T18:15:56.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-17T18:15:55.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

disparage (verb): 

1: to belittle the importance or value of (someone or something) : to speak slightingly about (someone or something)

2: to lower (someone or something) in rank or reputation : degrade

Source : [Merriam -Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disparage?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : In Middle English, to "disparage" someone meant causing that person to marry someone of inferior rank. Disparage derives from the Anglo-French word desparager, meaning "to marry below one's class." Desparager, in turn, combines the negative prefix des- with parage (meaning "equality" or "lineage"), which itself comes from per, meaning "peer." The original "marriage" sense of disparage is now obsolete, but a closely-related sense (meaning "to lower in rank or reputation") survives in modern English. By the 16th century, English speakers (including William Shakespeare) were also using disparage to mean simply "to belittle."

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