Today's Word

Excoriate

eks-KOR-ee-ayt

Definition

(verb) To criticize someone or something severely and publicly, often with harsh or scathing language.

Example

The columnist excoriated the company’s leadership for ignoring repeated safety warnings.

Word Origin

Excoriate comes from the Latin excoriare, meaning “to strip off the skin,” from ex- (“off”) and corium (“hide” or “skin”). While the word originally described physical abrasion, its meaning shifted metaphorically over time to describe verbal attacks so harsh they feel skin-deep, leaving nothing protected.

Fun Fact

Excoriate is one of many English words where physical pain became a metaphor for emotional or reputational damage. Even today, the word carries a visceral quality—suggesting that intense criticism doesn’t just hurt feelings, but exposes, wounds, and leaves marks long after the words are spoken.

Previous Words

Calumny

Today's Word

Calumny

KAL-um-nee

Definition

(noun) The making of false and damaging statements about someone; deliberate defamation of character.

Example

The calumny spread through the firm before anyone thought to check whether a single word of it was true — and by then, the damage was permanent.

Word Origin

Calumny derives from the Latin calumnia, meaning “false accusation” or “trickery,” rooted in calvi — “to trick” or “to deceive.” It entered English in the 15th century through Old French, used in legal and moral contexts to describe the deliberate fabrication of damaging falsehoods about another person. Unlike slander, which can be accidental or careless, calumny implies intent — the calculated deployment of lies as weapons against a specific target.

Fun Fact

Shakespeare was so preoccupied with calumny that it appears as a central destructive force in at least five of his plays. In Othello, Iago’s campaign of calumny against Desdemona destroys two lives without a single true accusation ever being made. In Much Ado About Nothing, a similarly fabricated slander nearly ends in tragedy before the truth emerges. Shakespeare understood something that modern psychology has since confirmed — that false accusations, once circulated, are almost impossible to fully retract. Studies show that corrections rarely travel as far or as fast as the original falsehood, which is why calumny has been one of history’s most effective and most devastating weapons.

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Excoriate

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Previous Words

Calumny

Calumny

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Calumny

Ennui

Iniquity

Protean

Enervate