Word of the Day Archive
Monday May 28, 2012
asperse \uh-SPURS\
, verb:
1. To sprinkle; bespatter.
2. To attack with false, malicious, and damaging charges or insinuations; slander.
Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dares now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them.
-- James Joyce, Ulysses
And their leader chanted: "Propitiate, propitiate, and, when ye have done so, asperse!"
-- Alice Warner, Myths and Legends of the Bantu
Asperse comes from the Latin root sparge meaning "to scatter or sprinkle." The prefix a- is a variation of ad- (meaning "toward") that is used before words that start with sc, sp or st.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for asperse
