Make Your Point > Archived Issues > CHASTISE

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

connect today's word to others: Recently I chastised my little daughter for coloring on the microwave. And that tells us everything we need to know about chastisement--but I hope you still read this issue! That is, to chastise someone is to tell them what they did wrong, to use words to punish them, to focus on correcting them so they can do better next time. Chastise and our previous word castigate are extremely close synonyms; we got both of them from the Latin word for "to make (someone) pure." Here's the difference. Chastisement is often gentler and more private than castigation. See if you can recall some more synonyms of chastise and castigate, in order from gentle to harsh:    ad___ish,    rep____nd,    ce___re,    re__ke,    and up___id. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "CHASTISE" To chastise someone used to mean to punish that person with a physical beating. But these days, to chastise people is to punish them with words (so that you teach them the right thing to do). (Here's Charles Elster: "When a teacher chastises a student today, it's with harsh words, not a hickory stick.")     Pronunciation: Either "chass TIZE" or "CHASS tize." Part of speech: Transitive verb. (Like "eat," "try," and "want," all transitive verbs do something to an object. You eat a banana, try a game, and want a new phone. Likewise, you chastise someone.) Other common forms: chastised, chastising, chastisement(s) How to use it: The tone of this word can be serious, but you can also use it lightheartedly. You can simply chastise someone: "I had to throw out my gum, and she chastised me after class." But most often, you chastise someone for something bad, or for doing something bad: "she chastised them for their laziness," "he chastised her for flaking out on their plans again." Often we'll use the passive voice: "he was chastised by his boss," "she's getting chastised by the media." Most of the time we chastise people (or groups of people), but occasionally we chastise the things they did: "we chastised his rudeness," "they chastised our overspending." examples: In the cold, dystopian world of The Giver, Jonas's parents chastise him for using language imprecisely; they "enjoy" him, they "take pride in his accomplishments," but they don't "love" him. On the forum, he was roundly, and may I say justly, chastised for defending Kirk as the superior Enterprise captain. study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "chastise" means when you can explain it without saying "give a talking-to" or "chew out." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "(Someone or something) doesn't so much chastise (someone or something) as (destroy, humiliate, or eviscerate) (him, her, it, or them)." Example: "The Jungle didn't so much chastise the meat industry as eviscerate it." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. Our game this month is "The Meanings of Maladies." I'll share a tidbit about the word for a particular symptom, disease, or condition, and you try to name it. We'll start with common maladies and work our way toward the rare and strange. From our previous issue: The word for this condition comes from a Greek word for a certain lovely natural phenomenon, a word that literally means "something that swoops or rushes down." But that word also means "portcullis," a type of protective cover or barrier that swoops down when needed. And so if you suffer from this condition, it blocks the light from your eye, like a portcullis blocks the entrance to a fortress. What's the condition? Answer: Cataracts. (Yup: cataracts are waterfalls, but also blockages in the eyes.) Try this today: The word for this disease comes straight from the Latin word for "wolf;" early references to the disease describe it as "hungry" and "consuming." What is it? review today's word: 1. One opposite of CHASTISE is A. LAUD. B. VILIFY. C. FOLLOW. 2. As if _____ our chastisements, she _____. A. predicting .. lays out a realistic budget and timeline B. she could feel .. kept to the rhythm as she danced C. deaf to .. keeps tattling on her friends Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. 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. Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. C