Pronounced: ex-uh-luth-uh-ROS-tuh-mize, verb
Notes: A nice fancy word that we could use
Yesterday’s word
The word vitiate means
- to make faulty or defective; impair
- to debase in moral or aesthetic status
- to make ineffective
First usage
This word came into English in the mid-1500s
Background / Comments
Our word comes from the Latin word vitium (fault; vice). As I noted yesterday, I know one definition (the third one). The first definition is similar to the third, and the second definition probably grew out of the “vice” definition. I seem to recollect reading the word about some action or thing vitiating the nerve of a person, which is clearly the third definition.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 