- Today's Word
Disrepute
dis-reh-PYOOT
Definition
(noun) The state of having a damaged or lost reputation; being held in low regard by others or by the public.
Example
The firm’s disrepute spread faster than any press release could contain — three clients left before the week was out.
Word Origin
Disrepute combines the prefix dis- meaning “away” or “reversal” with repute, from the Latin reputare — “to reckon” or “to think over” — built from re- (“again”) and putare (“to think” or “to reckon”). Repute entered English in the 15th century meaning the general opinion held of someone; disrepute followed as its logical opposite, describing the condition of having that opinion turn decisively negative.
Fun Fact
The concept of reputational damage has a surprisingly litigious history. In medieval English law, damaging someone’s reputation through false speech was a criminal offense called scandalum magnatum — literally “scandal of the magnates” — originally applicable only to nobles and clergy. The offense was taken so seriously that a single damaging rumor could result in imprisonment. Modern defamation law is a direct descendant of these medieval protections, making disrepute one of the few conditions that has been legally actionable for nearly a thousand years.