'Vilipend', a great word new to me, appeared today in the Wall Street Journal (Tunku Varadarajan's editorial). I'll quote a fair bit, excerpted, to give context.
Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a cancer, one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been indicted in her native Italy under provisions which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state." . . .The religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was perpetrated in a book she wrote last year -- and which has sold many more than a million copies all over Europe. Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." . . .It is a shame, in so many ways, that "vilipend," the latinate word that is the pinpoint equivalent in English of the Italian offense in question, is scarely every used in the Anglo-American lexicon; for it captures beautifully the pomposity, as well as the anachronistic outlandishness, of the law in question. A "vilification," by contrast, sounds so sordid, so tabloid -- hardly fitting for a grande dame.
It's long been one of my favourite words, for its sheer sound coupled with its splendid weight of meaning, but I doubt I've ever heard anyone use it but me.
It is a nice sounding word, I agree, with great sublety of meaning. Yet, it reminds me a little of "millipede" so I tend to envision a big, villainous bug!
Does it contain pend- 'hang'? Checks... Oh I see, it's more 'weight; esteem' in this. But I think I envisage a villain with mustachios and a victim hanging up in chains, and one or the other vilipending.
