asperse

English

Etymology

From Latin aspersus, past participle of aspergere.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈspɜːs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈspɝs/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

Verb

asperse (third-person singular simple present asperses, present participle aspersing, simple past and past participle aspersed)

1. To sprinkle or scatter (liquid or dust).
   • 2004, Derek Walcott, The Prodigal, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, page 102:

     a hand in San Marco's font / aspersed him with foul canal water

2. To falsely or maliciously charge someone.

   Synonym: slander

   • 1710 April 29 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [pseudonym; Joseph Addison; Richard Steele], “Tuesday, April 18, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 160; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume II, London: I. Walker and Co.;  […], 1822, →OCLC, page 409:

     It hath always been my way to baffle reproach with silence; though I cannot but observe the disingenuous proceedings of this gentleman, who is not content to asperse my writings, but hath wounded, through my sides, those eminent and worthy citizens, Mr. John Morphew, and Mr. Bernard Lintot.

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 8, Chapter 8, pp. 126-127,^[1]

     This is indeed a most aggravating Circumstance, which attends unjustly depriving Men of their Reputation; for a Man who is Conscious of having an ill Character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him; but ought rather to despise those that affect his Conversation, unless where a perfect Intimacy must have convinced them that their Friend’s Character hath been falsely and injuriously aspersed.

   • 1844, Charles Dickens, chapter 32, in Martin Chuzzlewit‎^[2], London: Chapman and Hall, page 394:

     If any one had taxed him with the vice, he would have indignantly repelled the accusation, and conceived himself unworthily aspersed.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:defame

Derived terms

• asperser
• aspersive
• unaspersed

 

Translations

sprinkle — see sprinkle

scatter — see scatter

to falsely charge another

• Bulgarian: клеветя (bg) (klevetja)
• Italian: calunniare (it), diffamare (it)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} asperger (fr)

Anagrams

• Parsees, pareses, preases, preasse, seprase, serapes

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

asperse

1. third-person singular past historic of aspergere

Etymology 2

Participle

asperse f pl

1. feminine plural of asperso

Anagrams

• esparse, paresse, passere, saprese, spesare, speserà

Latin

Participle

asperse

1. vocative masculine singular of aspersus