It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 7th.
Today's word is vilify, spelled V-I-L-I-F-Y.
Vilify is a verb.
To vilify someone or something is to say or write very harsh and critical things about them.
The word is a synonym of defame.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Washington Post by Jerry Brewer.
The eagerness to vilify the other side, usually on social media,
complicates the less reactionary work that defines our mission.
It seems reasonable to assume that the words vilify and villain come from the same source.
After all, to vilify someone is in some ways to make them out to be a villain.
Such is not the case, however.
Although the origin stories of both vilify and villain involve Latin,
their roots are quite different.
Vilify came to English via Middle English and Late Latin from the Latin adjective vilis,
meaning cheap or vile.
Someone who has been vilified, accordingly,
has had their reputation tarnished or cheapened in such a way that they're viewed as morally reprehensible.
Villain, on the other hand, comes from the medieval Latin word villanus,
meaning villager, and ultimately from the Latin noun villa, meaning house.
The Middle English descendant of Villanus developed the meaning of a person of uncouth mind and manners,