different between vilipend vs balderdash

English

Etymology

From Middle English vilipenden (“to treat (something) as contemptible”) [and other forms], from Old French vilipender (modern French vilipender (“to condemn, despise, revile, scorn, vilipend, vilify”)), or its etymon Latin vilipend?, from v?lis (“cheap, inexpensive; base, mean, vile, worthless”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to buy, sell”)) + pend? (“to hang, suspend; to weigh, weigh out; (figuratively) to consider, ponder”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch”)). The English word is cognate with Italian vilipendere (“to despise, scorn, vilipend”), Portuguese vilipendiar (“to vilify”), Spanish vilipendiar (“to vilify”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?v?l?p?nd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?v?l??p?nd/
• Hyphenation: vi?li?pend

Verb

vilipend (third-person singular simple present vilipends, present participle vilipending, simple past and past participle vilipended)

1. (transitive, dated, formal) To treat (something) as inconsequential or worthless; to despise, to look down on.

   Synonyms: belittle, contemn, misprize, slight

2. (transitive, dated, formal) To express a disparaging opinion of; to slander or vilify.

   Synonyms: abuse, disparage, derogate; see also Thesaurus:defame

   • 1853, July 10. "Evil Birds", The Colonist (Nelson, New Zealand): page 4:

     But we desire, most unhesitatingly to condemn and vilipend a system of continual abuse, intended to fall upon the provincial Government, but in reality reaching and injuring the public at large.

   • 1917, O. W. Firkins, The Nation, The Nation Company, page 176:

     But, for all their feint of nonchalance, these young persons have no other task in life but to explain and extol their own conduct and to vilipend their critics and opponents.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• vilipended (adjective)
• vilipender
• vilipending (adjective, noun)

Related terms

• vilification
• vilifier
• vilify

Translations

References

English

Etymology

Unknown, possibly from the early English drink of wine mixed with beer or water or other substances that was sold cheaply.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b??ld?.dæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Noun

balderdash (uncountable)

1. Senseless talk or writing; nonsense.
   • 1765, Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality, London, for the author, Volume I, “TO THE RIGHT RESPECTABLE MY Ancient and well-beloved PATRON THE PUBLIC,” p. xix,^[1]

     Where, you cried in the name of Wonder, have you been able to gather together such an old fashioned Bundlement of Scientific Balderdash?

   • 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.” in Southern Literary Messenger, Volume 10, December 1844, p. 720,^[2]

     [He] has the audacity to demand of us, for this twattle, a ‘speedy insertion and prompt pay.’ We neither insert nor purchase any stuff of the sort. There can be no doubt, however, that he would meet with a ready sale for all the balderdash he can scribble, at the office of either the ‘Rowdy-Dow,’ the ‘Lollipop,’ or the ‘Goosetherumfoodle.’

   • 1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Chapter 7,^[3]

     Charles Gould assumed that if the appearance of listening to deplorable balderdash must form part of the price he had to pay for being left unmolested, the obligation of uttering balderdash personally was by no means included in the bargain.

   • 1992 April 26, "Hot Off the Press" Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5:

     A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?
     B.W. Wooster: My dear old Gussie, that is how people think Irish people talk.

2. (archaic) A worthless mixture, especially of liquors.
   • 1637, John Taylor, Drinke and Welcome, London: Anne Griffin, “Beere,”^[4]

     Indeede Beere, by a Mixture of Wine, it enjoyes approbation amongst some few (that hardly understand wherefore) but then it is no longer Beere, but hath lost both Name and Nature, and is called Balderdash (an Utopian denomination) [...]

   • 1783, John O’Keeffe, The Agreeable Surprise, Newry: R. Stevenson, Act I, Scene 1, pp. 6-7,^[5]

     [...] I took him to oblige a foolish old friend of mine, who intended him for Saint Omers; so I must keep him to draw good wine, and brew balderdash Latin.

3. (obsolete) Obscene language or writing.
   • 1776, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, London: G. Robinson & J. Bew, Volume 4, Chapter 72, p. 46,^[6]

     Trugge, therefore, (who has a foul mouth of his own, when he pleases) talked balderdash to Mrs. Sudberry, through the key-hole, which she did not answer, for, indeed, she seems a civil spoken woman, truly [...]

   • 1795, Richard Cumberland, Henry, London: Charles Dilly, Volume I, Book 1, Chapter 6, p. 42,^[7]

     With me your work will be easy and your life happy, with him you will be a drudge and the lacquey of a drudge [...]: from me you will hear none but pious and edifying conversation; from them nothing but balderdash and blasphemy in an outlandish dialect [...]

Synonyms

• bunk, drivel, folderol, piffle, poppycock, rubbish, twaddle
• see Thesaurus:nonsense

Translations

Verb

balderdash (third-person singular simple present balderdashes, present participle balderdashing, simple past and past participle balderdashed)

1. (archaic) To mix or adulterate.
   • 1766, Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy, London: R. Baldwin, 2nd edition, Volume I, Letter 19, p. 309,^[8]

     That which is made by the peasants, both red and white, is generally genuine: but the wine-merchants of Nice brew and balderdash, and even mix it with pigeons dung and quick-lime.

References