different between vituperative vs vitriol

English

Etymology

Formed from Latin vituper?ti? (“a blaming, censuring”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /v??tju?p??t?v/, /va??tju?p??t?v/
• (US) IPA^(key): /v??tu?p??t?v/, /va??tu?p??t?v/
• ,

Adjective

vituperative (comparative more vituperative, superlative most vituperative)

1. Marked by harsh, spoken, or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing.
   • 1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Volume I, Chapter 19,^[1]

     […] ten times in a day calling the child of his prayers TRISTRAM!—Melancholy dissyllable of sound! which, to his ears, was unison to Nincompoop, and every name vituperative under heaven.

   • 1792, Robert Bage, Man As He Is, London: William Lane, Volume 3, Chapter 81, p. 257,^[2]

     […] Lady Mary saw as clearly into the bodies, and I believe souls, of every servant who approached her, as if they had been cased in chrystal. And she saw so many foulnesses there, and so many aberrations, that Lady Mary’s language was almost wholly moral and vituperative.

   • 1875, William Gifford, footnote to Act IV, Scene 2 of Every Man in His Humour in The Works of Ben Jonson, London: Bickers & Son, Volume I, p. 106,^[3]

     […] our ancestors, who were not very delicate, nor, generally speaking, much overburthened with respect for the feelings of foreigners, had a number of vituperative appellations derived from their real or supposed ill qualities, of many of which the precise import cannot now be ascertained.

   • 1928, Giles Lytton Strachey, Elizabeth and Essex, New York: Harcourt, Brace, Chapter 9, p. 144,^[4]

     […] she […] proceeded, without a pause, to pour out a rolling flood of vituperative Latin, in which reproof, indignation, and sarcastic pleasantries followed one another with astonishing volubility.

   • 2008, Jeffrey St. Clair, “Last Stand in the Big Woods,” CounterPunch, 16 August, 2008,^[5]

     The injunction also became a pretext for yet another round of vituperative cant from Idaho’s reactionary congressional delegation.

Synonyms

• (marked by harsh verbal abuse): vituperating, abusive, censorious, invective, ranting, scolding

Related terms

Translations

References

• vituperative in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Adjective

vituperative f pl

1. feminine plural of vituperativo

English

Etymology

From Middle English vitriol, from Old French vitriol, from Medieval Latin vitriolum (“sulphuric acid”), from vitrum (“glass”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?v?.t?i.?l/

Noun

vitriol (countable and uncountable, plural vitriols)

1. (dated) Sulphuric acid and various metal sulphates.
2. (by extension) Bitterly abusive language.
   • 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, "[1]," New York Times (retrieved 2 November 2012):

     For days, online forums sparked with outrage against politicians and race organizers, a tone that turned to vitriol against runners, even from some shaming other runners for being selfish.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Irish: vitrial

Translations

Verb

vitriol (third-person singular simple present vitriols, present participle vitrioling or vitriolling, simple past and past participle vitrioled or vitriolled)

1. (transitive) To subject to bitter verbal abuse.
2. (transitive, metallurgy) To dip in dilute sulphuric acid; to pickle.
3. (transitive, colloquial) To vitriolize.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin vitriolum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vi.t?i.j?l/

Noun

vitriol m (plural vitriols)

1. vitriol (all senses)

Further reading

• “vitriol” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Romanian

Etymology

From French vitriol.

Noun

vitriol n (plural vitrioluri)

1. vitriol

Declension