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Origin and history of deprecate

deprecate(v.)

1620s, "to pray against or for deliverance from, pray the removal or deliverance from," from Latin deprecatus, past participle of deprecari "to pray (something) away," from de "away" (see de-) + precari "to pray" (from PIE root *prek- "to ask, entreat"). Meaning "to express disapproval, urge against" is from 1640s. Related: Deprecated, deprecating.

also from 1620s

Entries linking to deprecate

self-deprecating(adj.)

"marked by expressed disapproval of oneself," 1835, from self- + deprecating (see deprecate).

de-

active word-forming element in English and in many verbs inherited from French and Latin, from Latin de "down, down from, from, off; concerning" (see de), also used as a prefix in Latin, usually meaning "down, off, away, from among, down from," but also "down to the bottom, totally" hence "completely" (intensive or completive), which is its sense in many English words.

As a Latin prefix it also had the function of undoing or reversing a verb's action, and hence it came to be used as a pure privative — "not, do the opposite of, undo" — which is its primary function as a living prefix in English, as in defrost (1895), defuse (1943), de-escalate (1964), etc. In some cases, a reduced form of dis-.

*prek-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to ask, entreat." 

It might form all or part of: deprecate; deprecation; expostulate; imprecate; imprecation; postulate; pray; prayer; precarious; precatory; prithee.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit prasna-, Avestan frashna- "question;" Sanskrit prcchati, Avestan peresaiti "interrogates;" Latin precari "ask earnestly, beg, entreat;" Old Church Slavonic prositi, Lithuanian prašyti "to ask, beg;" Old High German frahen, German fragen, Old English fricgan "to ask" a question.

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    knock
    Figurative meaning "deprecate, put down" is from 1892. Related: Knocked; knocking. Of engines from 1869....
    tip
    A reviewer of the book in The Athenaeum of Oct. 2, 1909, wrote, "We deprecate the careless repetition of popular etymologies...
    disparage
    late 14c., "degrade socially" (for marrying below rank or without proper ceremony), from Anglo-French and Old French desparagier (Modern French déparager) "reduce in rank, degrade, devalue, depreciate," originally "to marry unequally, marry to one of inferior condition or rank,"
    belittle
    1781, "to make small, reduce in proportion," from be- + little (v.); first recorded in writings of Thomas Jefferson (and probably coined by him), Jefferson used it in "Notes on the State of Virginia" to characterize the view promoted as scientific by French naturalist Georges-Lou
    reject
    early 15c., rejecten, "eject, set aside, block from inheritance;" late 15c., "refuse to acquiesce or submit to," from Old French rejecter and directly from Latin reiectus, past participle of reiectare "throw away, cast away, vomit," frequentative of reicere "to throw back," from
    decorum
    1560s, "that which is proper or fitting in a literary or artistic composition;" 1580s, "propriety of speech, behavior, or dress; formal politeness," from Latin decorum "that which is seemly," noun use of neuter of adjective decorus "fit, proper," from decor "beauty, elegance, cha
    explode
    1530s (transitive), "to reject with scorn," from Latin explodere "drive out or off by clapping, hiss off, hoot off," originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise," hence "drive out, reject, destroy the repute of" (a sense surviving in an exploded theory
    girl
    c. 1300, gyrle "child, young person" (of either sex but most frequently of females), of unknown origin. One guess [OED] leans toward an unrecorded Old English *gyrele, from Proto-Germanic *gurwilon-, diminutive of *gurwjoz (apparently also represented by Low German gære "boy, gir
    holy
    Old English halig "holy, consecrated, sacred; godly; ecclesiastical," from Proto-Germanic *hailaga- (source also of Old Norse heilagr, Danish hellig, Old Frisian helich "holy," Old Saxon helag, Middle Dutch helich, Old High German heilag, German heilig, Gothic hailags "holy"), fr
    rap
    early 14c., rappe, "a quick, light blow; a resounding stroke," also "a fart" (late 15c.), native or borrowed from a Scandinavian source (compare Danish rap, Swedish rapp "light blow"); either way probably of imitative origin (compare slap, clap). Slang meaning "a rebuke, the blam

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