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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DEPRECATE

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pronounce DEPRECATE:

DEP rih kate

Hear it.
connect this word to others:

A high five to Annika, who recently brought the word deprecate to my attention!

When you deprecate things, you ridicule them. You belittle them. You disp___ge them. You vil__y them. (Can you recall those synonyms?)

Comedians often deprecate themselves:

"My skin is borderline translucent. If I'm standing, and the sun is behind me, I'm a functioning x-ray."
  — John Oliver

"When I'm walking down the street I don't think anybody goes, 'Hey, look at that man,' they're just like 'Woah, that tall child looks terrible.'" 
  — John Mulaney

Deprecation, whether it's self-directed or not, is insulting, or trash-talking. So if you think about that, and if you take a close look at the word deprecate, then you might take a guess that it literally means "to devalue," a precise antonym of appreciate.

But actually, nope! Appreciate traces back to the Latin pretium, meaning "price," while deprecate traces back to precari, "to ask, to beg, or to pray." Literally speaking, to deprecate something is to pray it away.

Wait, what? How did we get from "pray" to "insult"? Read on, and I promise it'll make sense!

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Deprecate" has Latin bits that literally mean "to pray away." In English, at first, to deprecate things was to pray against them: to seek safety from them by praying. Over time, the meaning changed from "pray against" to "plead against or wish against" to "express disapproval."

And that's where we are today.

To deprecate things is to express your disapproval of them: to say that they're bad, or say that they're not good enough, or otherwise criticize them somehow.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, the transitive kind: "Why do some critics seem to delight in deprecating dishes, restaurants, and chefs?"

Other forms: 

The other verb forms are "deprecated" and "deprecating," and the noun is "deprecation."

For an adjective, take your pick. You can use "deprecating" (with the adverb being "deprecatingly"). Or you can sound more formal with "deprecatory," pronounced "DEP ruh kuh tore ee" (with the adverb being "deprecatorily").

how to use it:

Pick the formal, serious word "deprecate" to emphasize the haughty manner in which someone is dismissing or belittling something. If the basic message is "That's not good enough," then call it deprecation.

Talk about people deprecating things: "She regretted having deprecated pink houses all through dinner, as her date, she learned, lived in a pink house." "New Yorkers chafed at the congresswoman deprecating their city as 'filthy' and 'repulsive.'"

Or, talk about people's deprecating (or deprecatory) comments, stories, laughter, and smirks.

Of course, self-deprecation is often much more fun and goodhearted. You might talk about self-deprecating jokes, stories, humor, styles, comics, etc.

examples:

"If you say you barely squeaked through Physics for Poets, you have deprecated yourself twice in one sentence." 
   — K Yates, commenter, New York Times, 13 January 2015

"The Comic Novel might imagine itself descended from Cervantes and Fielding, but it is really the stunted offspring of Waugh and Wodehouse, lacking the magic of either. That deprecatory note is a common one: the Comic Novel as the revolving bow tie, the novelty Christmas jumper of fiction."
   — Sam Leith, quoting James Wood, The Guardian, 9 June 2018

has this page helped you understand "deprecate"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "deprecate" without saying "insult" or "belittle."

try it out:

Let's check out some (fictional) examples of self-deprecation.

From Mean Girls:


"God, my hips are huge."
"Oh, please, I hate my calves."
"At least you guys can wear halters. I've got MAN shoulders."

And from Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club:

     "As is the Chinese cook's custom, my mother always made disparaging remarks about her own cooking. That night she chose to direct it toward her famous steamed pork and preserved vegetable dish, which she always served with special pride.
     'Ai! This dish not salty enough, no flavor,' she complained, after tasting a small bite. 'It is too bad to eat.'
     This was our family's cue to eat some and proclaim it the best she had ever made. But before we could do so, Rich said, 'You know, all it needs is a little soy sauce.' And he proceeded to pour a riverful of the salty black stuff on the platter, right before my mother's horrified eyes."

With these examples in mind, would you say that there are times when you deprecate yourself for social purposes? If so, how, and is your self-deprecation sincere or insincere? If not, why? Do you ever wish your loved ones would stop deprecating themselves?




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for April: Interpret the Titles!

I'll give you the title of some book, movie, or other creation, along with a summary, and I'll challenge you to interpret the title in three different ways.

For examples, and some tips if you get stuck, head here!

Try this one today: Black Swan is a 2010 movie directed by Darren Aronofsky. Here's a summary from IMDb.com: "Nina is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica, who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily, who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side—a recklessness that threatens to destroy her."

1. It's titled Black Swan because... ?

2. It's titled Black Swan because... ?

3. It's titled Black Swan because... ?

To see some possible answers, scroll all the way down!

review this word:

1. Opposites of DEPRECATE include

A. LAUD and PRAISE.
B. OBEY and KOWTOW.
C. IMPROVE and UPGRADE.

2. In Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison wrote, "And [the poet] was fond of saying, in deprecating some item, '_____.'"

A. On that, I could write an epic
B. I couldn't write a line with that in the house
C. I've carefully selected this for its inspirational value




Answers to the review questions:
1. A
2. B


Possible answers to the game questions:

1. It's titled Black Swan because that's the name of the chief character in the ballet Swan Lake.

2. It's titled Black Swan because, by definition and common metaphor, a black swan is something extremely rare, and Nina and Lily are both dancers with rare talent; also by definition, a black swan is a bizarre, unpredictable event, which is how the story will end.

3. It's titled Black Swan because in the story, Thomas Leroy plays the villain, a black swan freely swimming around everyone else while exerting a dark, malignant power over them (firing the accomplished Beth, and pitting Nina and Lily against each other).


a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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