PIE word *dwóh₁ Learned borrowing from Latin vituperātus (“censured; disparaged”), perfect passive participle of vituperō (“to blame, scold, tell off; to censure; to disparage, find fault with”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from vitium (“blemish, defect, flaw, imperfection; crime, misdeed, wrongdoing; fault, error, sin; vice; disease (of plants)”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(d)wi-tyo- (“apart; wrong”), from *dwóh₁ (“two”)) + parō (“to acquire, get, obtain, procure; to arrange, order; to contrive, design; to furnish, provide; to produce; to decide, resolve”) (from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to get, procure; to produce; to bring forward; to bring forth, carry forth; to go through”)).
1
Formal To criticize (someone or something) in an abusive or harsh manner.
They loue not porke, nor ſwynes fleſh, but doth vituperate and abhore it, yet for all this, they will eate Adders, which is a kind of Serpentes, as well as any other Chriſtyan man dwelling in Roome, and other highe countreys, for Adders fleſhe there, is called fyſhe of the mountayne, this notwithſtanding Phiſicke doeth approbate adders fleſh good to be eaten, […]1576, Andrewe Boord [i.e., Andrew Boorde], “Treateth of Fleshe, of Wylde, and Tame Beastes. [Porke, Brawne, Bacon, Pygge.]”, in Here Followeth a Compendious Regiment, or Dietarie of Health. […], London: […] H. Jackson, →OCLC:
[M]y beſt Lady, you knovv, and many better men then he have told you, that I am ſo far from vvronging you vvith a falſhood, that I have maintained your honor vvith the hazzard of my life againſt any that ever durſt vituperate you; […]1652, S. S[heppard], “Amorous Letters. [A Gentleman Being Calumniated to a Lady (whom Perhaps He Affects) of Detracting from Her Honour, thus Vindicates Himself by Letter.]”, in The Secretaries Studie; Containing New Familiar Epistles. […], London: […] T. H. for John Harrison […], →OCLC, page 51:
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[T]he Rites of conſecrating, or crovvning Kings, and taking Oath of them to perform the Lavvs of their Government, and to maintain the Rites of Holy Church, […] is no lame and lazy Ceremony, made up onely of extern pomp, but of neceſſary and renovvned conſequence; vvhich thoſe that vituperate are Children, and thoſe that vvould overthrovv are Devils; becauſe therein accuſers of antient Piety and Prudence, and enemies to Mankind, vvho generally have the Prieſthood in higheſt honour.1663, Edward Waterhous[e], chapter I, in Fortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by Sir John Fortescue Knight, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Roycroft for Thomas Dicas […], →OCLC, page 33:
We are not ignorant that it has long obtained as a principle amongst writers and declaimers of a certain class, to poison as much as they can the public mind, not only by representing royalty in this nation as superfluous and ridiculous, but by vituperating, and vilifying, by every false, ridiculous, and scandalous aspersion within the compass of their gross and sterile imaginations, the person, conduct, public and domestic pursuits of our most gracious monarch.1795 October 31 – November 15, “Observations on the Insults Offered to the Person of His Majesty, in His Way to and Return from the House of Lords”, in The Register of the Times, or, Political Museum: […], volume VII, London: […] C[harles] Whittingham, for B. Crosby, […], →OCLC, page 137, column 1:
['T]is false as hell, and thou vituperatest thine own sex in saying so, lady. Wert thou the daughter of a king, instead of a proud Popish Knight, I would say so to thy face.1832 April 4, “From an Unpublished Romance of the Seventeenth Century. An Interview.—Its Consequences.”, in The Day, a Morning Journal of Literature, Fine Arts, Fashion, &c., number 81, Glasgow: R. & J. Finlay, […], →OCLC, page 321:
Bear witness all ye, that Nicolas Salomen vituperateth our goodly fellowship; for this must he needs swallow another goblet.1835, chapter IV, in Blackbeard. A Page from the Colonial History of Philadelphia. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 39:
2
Formal To attack (someone or something) with abusive language; to revile, to vilify.
A bane to merit, he exerts himſelf to the deſtruction of every valuable virtue in literature, or in life: his pen is ne'er employed but in the abuſing and vituperating the innocent and meritorious; and like a voracious flie, he leaves and diſregards every accompliſhment, to fix upon the only ſore.1773, J. R., “An Essay on Envy”, in I[saac] Thompson, editor, The Literary Register: Or, Weekly Miscellany. […], volume V, Newcastle, Northumberland: […] Compilers of that news-paper, →OCLC, page 373, column 1:
[…] I learn that I have enemies, who, not content to hate, are sedulous to vituperate me.1797 April 16, J[ohn] S[key] Eustace, “General Eustace to Mr. J. W. Ebervelt, of the West-India Colonial Committee, at the Hague”, in Letters on the Emancipation & Preservation of the United Provinces, to John De Witt, Esquire; with Lessons of Humanity, Addressed to Nicholas Van Staphorst: Written from Basil, in the Year 1794, Rotterdam: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 96:
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The yeomen separated the incensed priests, who continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin, which the Prior delivered the more fluently, and the Hermit with the greater vehemence.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter III, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 86:
[T]he Senator from Rhode Island, in charge of the bill, had been denounced and vituperated, and had shown remarkable patience in enduring these repeated insults; […]1909 May 14, [Hernando] Money, “Senate Resolution 44. Resolved, That the President be Requested to Transmit to the Senate All Information Collected by the Department of Commerce and Labor Affecting the Prices of Tobacco and the Operations of Corporations and Others Dealing in the Same.”, in Congressional Record: Containing the Proceedings and Debates of the Sixty-first Congress, First Session, also Special Session of the Senate (United States Senate), volume XLIV, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2045, column 1:
Now the Brito-Celtic Church as Mr. [Henry Charles] Coote calls it, the Church which Augustine vituperated, is a fact, but I should certainly like to have some proof of the existence of the other, the "Early English Church" which Augustine ignored. And I should further like to know why he vituperated in the one case and ignored in the other.1870 July, Edward [Augustus] Freeman, “The Alleged Permanence of Roman Civilization in England”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XXII, number 129, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 225, column 2:
Agnolo [Pandolfini] has logic on his side in the very extreme to which he goes; but, like most of his successors in this dangerous line of remark, he loses his temper and begins to vituperate, though his rage is not against the weaker being whom he frankly despises [i.e., woman], but against the men who do not despise her.1876, [Margaret] Oliphant, “A Peaceful Citizen”, in The Makers of Florence: Dante, Giotto, Savonarola; and Their City, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, footnote 1, pages 168–169:
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Governor "Ben" Tillman of South Carolina vituperated back with great fluency and the scene ended by a mutual promise to finish the discussion with more lethal weapons.1894 September 22, “Current Comment. [The Cost of Demagogism.]”, in Lorillard Spencer, editor, The Illustrated American, volume XVI, number 240, New York, N.Y.: Lorillard Spencer, →OCLC, page 364, column 2:
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin vituperātus (“censured; disparaged”), see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.
1
Formal Of, characterized by, or relating to abusive or harsh criticism.
The glorification of women as mothers informed the propaganda of the Nazi years but social reality told a different story. In 1933, a vituperate campaign against 'double earners' forced married women, whose husbands were employed, out of the labour market.1998, Eva Kolinsky, “Non-German Minorities, Women and Civil Society”, in Eva Kolinsky, Wilfried van der Will, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Modern German Culture, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 2004, →ISBN, page 124:
Faced with a vituperate Serbian nationalism and the despotic actions of Slobodan Milošević, who took power in the late 1980s, Slovenia and Croatia seceded from federal Yugoslavia in June 1991[…].2019, Keith Doubt, Adnan Tufekčić, “Introduction”, in Ethnic and National Identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Kinship and Solidarity in a Polyethnic Society, Lanham, Md.; Boulder, Colo.: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 4:
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At the same time, a broadsheet entitled Memoirs of the Political Life of Robert Alexander and others was published anonymously but was evidently written by Borthwick because he sent a copy to Henry Cockburn. It was a vituperate attack on Alexander, accusing him of being a ne'er-do-well fraudster.2019, Michael Moss, “The Field of Auchtertool – A Moral Waterloo?”, in The Duel between Sir Alexander Boswell and James Stuart: Scottish Squibs and Pistols at Dawn, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 150:
2
Formal, Rare Which has been abusively or harshly criticized; also, deserving harsh criticism.
These, and many more that might be adduced, are instances of the obscure though not absolutely impervious medium through which the present age views ancient history; and at the head of these illusions, is the great illusion of all, on wealth and poverty. Wealth was to be discreditable, unmanly, vituperate, because it was found greatly to indispose men to be active thieves. […] This is the sorry explanation, of the ancient theory of heroic poverty.1832 January, “Art. I.—Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, being Part of a Course Delivered in Easter Term, 1831. By Richard Whatley, […]—London. Fellowes. 1831. 8vo. pp. 238. [book review]”, in The Westminster Review, volume XVI, number XXXI, London: […] [Thomas Curson Hansard] for the proprietors, and published by Robert Heward, […], →OCLC, pages 6–7: