verbicide

[ vur-buh-sahyd ]

noun

1. the willful distortion or depreciation of the original meaning of a word.
2. a person who willfully distorts the meaning of a word.

Word History and Origins

Origin of verbicide¹

First recorded in 1855–60; from Latin verb(um) “word” + -i- + -cide

Example Sentences

Lewis’s term “verbicide,” the willful distortion or deprecation of a word’s original meaning.

From Time

In rambling Senate speeches, he quotes the Bible, Jefferson and Kipling; he opposes most civil rights bills and accuses the Supreme Court of killing the Constitution's meaning by "verbicide."

From Time Magazine Archive

Associated words: glossary, glossarist, glossography, glossology, glossologist, lexicology, lexicologist, etymology, etymologist, etymologize, neology, lexicography, terminology, paronomasia, pun, punning, onomatopœoea, syncope, syncopation, literal, literally, literalism, transliteration, verbal, verbalist, verbalism, battology, logomachy, logomachist, verbarium, apocope, kyriology, metonomy, autonomasia, multiloquence, perissology, purism, purist, elision, polysynthesis, coin, coinage, apheresis, aphetic, aphetism, aphesis, onomatopoiesis, metaphrase, acrostic, rebus, synecdoche, verbicide, verbomaniac, locution. words of an opera. libretto.

From Project Gutenberg

Think of making "feeble" rhyme with "people," "abroad" with "Lord," and contemplate the following couplet which one cannot make rhyme without actual verbicide:—   "Where feeds the moose, and walks the surly bear,   And up the tall mast runs the woodpeck"-are!

From Project Gutenberg

Homicide and verbicide—that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life—are alike forbidden.

From Project Gutenberg