Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ASPERSION
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You might be squinting at today's word, thinking, "Didn't we just do that one?" Nope, but we did recently look at asperity. Although it would make a lot of sense to guess that the two are closely related, their similarity is a coincidence!
Take the prefix "ad-," meaning "on or to," and attach it to the Latin spargere, meaning "to strew, to sprinkle," and you get "aspersion," which literally means "(something) sprinkled on (someone)." Centuries ago in English, peopled talked about literal aspersions, such as "aspersions of holy water" or "aspersions of dirt."
Part of speech:
Pick the very formal, semi-common word "aspersion" when you want to suggest that someone's public insults about someone else are petty, cruel, unfair, undeserved, or all of the above.
"I was very, very wrong to call House dull. In fact, it's wonderful... I cast, let me be brutally honest here, aspersions. I said that, save for the exceptional two-part finale, it had become 'numbingly formulaic' by the end of season four."
Explain the meaning of "aspersion" without saying "slanderous comment" or "disparagement."
Fill in the blanks: "(Someone) is more focused on (doing something positive or harmonious) than casting aspersions on (certain people or things)."
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.
1.
The opposite of ASPERSIONS could be
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