different between defame vs demerit

English

Etymology

From Middle English defamen, from Anglo-Norman defamer (verb), defame (noun), and its source, Latin diff?m?, from f?ma (“fame; rumour; reputation”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??fe?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Verb

defame (third-person singular simple present defames, present participle defaming, simple past and past participle defamed)

1. To disgrace; to bring into disrepute. [from 4th c.]

   • My guilt thy growing virtues did defame; / My blackness blotted thy unblemish'd name.

2. (now chiefly historical) To charge; to accuse (someone) of an offence. [from 14th c.]

   Rebecca is […] defamed of sorcery practised on the person of a noble knight.

3. To harm or diminish the reputation of; to disparage. [from 4th c.]

   to defame somebody

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:defame

Related terms

• defamatory
• defamation

Translations

Noun

defame (countable and uncountable, plural defames)

1. (now rare, archaic) Disgrace, dishonour. [from 14th c.]
   • 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, I.1:

     And all the sparks that may bring unto flame / Hate betwixt man and wife, or breed defame.

2. (now rare or nonstandard) Defamation; slander, libel. [from 15th c.]

Further reading

• defame in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• defame in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Old French desmerite (compare French démérite).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??m?r?t/
• Rhymes: -?r?t

Noun

demerit (countable and uncountable, plural demerits)

2. A quality of being inadequate; a fault; a disadvantage
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     They see no merit or demerit in any man or any action.
3. A mark given for bad conduct to a person attending an educational institution or serving in the army.
   • 2002, George W. Bush, Commencement Address at West Point:

     A few of you have followed in the path of the perfect West Point graduate, Robert E. Lee, who never received a single demerit in four years. Some of you followed in the path of the imperfect graduate, Ulysses S. Grant, who had his fair share of demerits, and said the happiest day of his life was "the day I left West Point." (Laughter.)

4. That which one merits or deserves, either of good or ill; desert.
   • c. 1550s, Nicholas Udall, Ralph Roister Doister

     Leave here thy body, death has her demerit

   • 1603, Philemon Holland (translator), The Philosophie, commonly called, the Morals (originally by Plutarch)

     By many benefits and demerits whereby they obliged their adherents, [they] acquired this reputation.

Synonyms

• discredit

Antonyms

• merit

Derived terms

• demerit point

Translations

Verb

demerit (third-person singular simple present demerits, present participle demeriting, simple past and past participle demerited)

1. (transitive, archaic) To deserve.
   • 1840, Alexander Campbell, Dolphus Skinner, A discussion of the doctrines of the endless misery and universal salvation (page 351)

     You hold that every sin is an infinite evil, demeriting endless punishment.

2. (transitive, archaic) To depreciate or cry down.
   • 1576, John Woolton, The Christian Manuell

     Faith by her own dignity and worthiness doth not demerit justice and righteousness; but receiveth and embraceth the same offered unto us in the gospel […]

Anagrams

• detemir, dimeter, merited, mitered, red time, retimed