[f. L. vituperāt-, ppl. stem of vituperāre to censure, blame, disparage, find fault with, etc., f. vitu- for viti-, stem of vitium blemish, fault, VICE sb.1 + parāre to prepare. See also VITUPER v.] trans. To blame, speak ill of, find fault with, in strong or violent language; to assail with abuse; to rate or revile.
Not in common use until the beginning of the 19th c.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xvi. (1870), 273. They louyth not porke nor swynes flesshe, but doth vituperat & abhorre it.
1611. Cotgr., Vituperer, to vituperate, dispraise, discommend. [Hence in Cockeram, Blount, Bailey, etc.]
1638. Penkethman, Artach., C ij. Whatsoever transcends their sedulous apprehension … without any favourable expostulation … they will unworthily and unwittingly vituperate and reprehend.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxiii. The incensed priests … continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin.
1826. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Pop. Fallacies, iv. A speech from the poorest sort of people which always indicates that the party vituperated is a gentleman.
1860. Froude, Hist. Eng., V. 477. He vituperated from the pulpit the vices of the court.
1883. A. Forbes, in Fortn. Rev., 1 Nov., 671. Englishmen are not in the habit of vituperating Monk as a traitor.
refl. 1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., x. (1873), 96. Deviation from scenic propriety has only to vituperate itself for the consequences it generates.
B. absol. or intr. To employ abusive language.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics, VIII. v. 46. Vituperated and vituperating, he became a wanderer throughout Germany.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., vi. 168. He loses his temper and begins to vituperate.
Hence Vituperated ppl. a.
1841. Emerson, Conservative, Wks. (Bohn), II. 272. You are yourself the result of this manner of living, this foul compromise, this vituperated Sodom.
