Word of the Day Archive
Friday May 28, 1999
objurgate \OB-juhr-gayt\ , transitive verb:
To express strong disapproval of; to criticize severely.
I objurgate the centipede,
A bug we do not really need.
-- Ogden Nash, "The Centipede"
The act about to be objurgated here calls on the Food and Drug Administration to oversee a broad revision of food labeling.
-- Daniel Seligman, "Federal Food Follies", Fortune, July 1, 1991
Objurgate comes from the past participle of Latin from objurgare, "to scold, to blame," from ob-, "against" + jurgare, "to dispute, to quarrel, to sue at law," from jus, jur-, "law" + -igare (from agere, "to lead").
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for objurgate
