different between defame vs depreciate

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

Borrowed from Latin depretiare, depretiatus, from de- + pretium (“price”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??p?i???e?t/

Verb

depreciate (third-person singular simple present depreciates, present participle depreciating, simple past and past participle depreciated)

1. (transitive) To lessen in price or estimated value; to lower the worth of.
   • 1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe

     […] which […] some over-severe philosophers may look upon fastidiously, or undervalue and depreciate.

   • 1 December, 1783, Edmund Burke, speech on Fox's East India Bill

     To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom itself.

2. (intransitive) To decline in value over time.
3. (transitive) To belittle or disparage.

Usage notes

• Do not confuse with deprecate (“to disapprove of”). The meaning of deprecate has lately been encroaching on depreciate in the sense 'to belittle'.

Synonyms

• (reduce in value over time):
• (belittle): do down

Antonyms

• (reduce in value over time): appreciate
• (belittle): aggrandise/aggrandize, big up (slang)

Translations

Anagrams

• etacepride