execrate
verb/ˈɛɡzɪkɹeɪt/ · /ˈɛksɪkɹeɪt/
Etymology From Latin exsecrārī, execrārī, from ex (“out”) + sacrāre (“to consecrate, declare accursed”).
1
To feel loathing for; to abhor.
- Yet she appeared confident in innocence, and did not tremble, although gazed on and execrated by thousands ; […]1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 161:
- And were I not a thing for you and me To execrate in anguish, you would be As indigent a stranger to surprise, I fear, as I was once, and as unwise.1932, Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Prodigal Son”, in Nicodemus, page 66:
2
To declare to be hateful or abhorrent; to denounce.
3
Archaic To invoke a curse; to curse or swear.
- He longed to execrate aloud, to bring his fist down on something violently.1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Counterparts”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 109:
- Derived terms
- execrable, execration, execrative, execrator, execratory, unexecrated
- Related terms
- consecrate, desecrate