disparage
verb
Lisa FickenscherLucy Stone
Did you know?
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."
Synonyms
Examples of disparage in a Sentence
Claudia Rosenbaum, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024
First, the campaign started to notice a shift in their internal numbers on the heels of a Trump rally in New York City, where a comedian made disparaging comments about Latinos.
—Amie Parnes, The Hill, 4 Nov. 2024
Revisiting what might have been the most dangerous moment for him eight years ago, unprompted, and reminding voters about his long history of disparaging comments.
—Brady Knox, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 4 Nov. 2024
His first bid for the White House ended in a plagiarism scandal, his second began with comments that came off as disparaging Barack Obama, who would later pick Biden as his steady-handed global ambassador.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 31 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for disparage 
Dictionary Entries Near disparage
Cite this Entry
“Disparage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disparage. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
disparage
verb
Share