belittle

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English

WOTD – 19 January 2009

Etymology

From be- +‎ little. Coined by Thomas Jefferson in 1782[1].

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (AU):(file)
    Rhymes: -ɪtəl

Verb

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  1. (transitive) To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is. [from 1782]
    Synonyms: understate, make light of, denigrate, degrade, deprecate, disparage
    Antonym: exaggerate
    • 2006, Mark Steyn, chapter 9, in America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, →ISBN, page 201:
      Under the rules as understood by the New York Times, the West is free to mock and belittle its Judeo-Christian inheritance, and, likewise, the Muslim world is free to mock and belittle the West's Judeo-Christian inheritance.
    Don't belittle your colleagues.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ Thomas Jefferson (1802) “Productions, mineral, vegetable and animal”, in Notes on the State of Virginia, page 90: “So far the Count de Buffon has carried this new theory of the tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this ſide of the Atlantic.”
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