different between vitiate vs debauch

English

Alternative forms

• viciate

Etymology

From viti?tus, the perfect passive participle of Latin viti? (“damage, spoil”), from vitium (“vice”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /?v??.i.e?t/
• (US)

Verb

vitiate (third-person singular simple present vitiates, present participle vitiating, simple past and past participle vitiated)

1. (transitive) to spoil, make faulty; to reduce the value, quality, or effectiveness of something
   • 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, "An Address delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday evening, 15 July, 1838":

     The least admixture of a lie, -- for example, the taint of vanity, the least attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance, -- will instantly vitiate the effect.

   • 2007, David Roodman, "A Short Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments", Center for Global Development Working Paper 125 (August 2007), p. 9

     Unfortunately, as Anderson and Sørenson (1996) and Bowsher (2002) document, instrument proliferation can vitiate the test.

2. (transitive) to debase or morally corrupt
3. (transitive, archaic) to violate, to rape
4. (transitive) to make something ineffective, to invalidate

Related terms

• See vice

Translations

References

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

viti?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of viti?

English

Alternative forms

• debosh

Etymology

1590s, from Middle French desbaucher (“entice from work or duty”), from Old French desbauchier (“to lead astray”), from des- + bauch (“beam”), from Frankish *balko, from Proto-Germanic *balkô, from Proto-Indo-European *bhelg- (“beam, plank”); latter origin of balk.

Evolution of sense unclear; may be literally “to shave/trim wood to make a beam” or may be “to leave/lure someone from a workshop”, Frankish *balko perhaps also meaning “workshop”.

Possible corruption by way of Anglicised French term bord (“edge, kerb”): kerb crawling as a synonym for prostitution. Parallels in modern German: Bordsteinschwalbe (“prostitute”, literally “Kerb-stone-swallow or kerb-bird”). English words bawd, bawdiness may be similarly connected.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

debauch (plural debauches)

1. An individual act of debauchery.
2. An orgy.

Translations

Verb

debauch (third-person singular simple present debauches, present participle debauching, simple past and past participle debauched)

1. (transitive) To morally corrupt (someone); to seduce.
2. (transitive) To debase (something); to lower the value of (something).
3. (intransitive) To indulge in revelry.

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

• balk

References