Pronounced: PRO-uhm (alt: PRO-em), noun
Notes: Not a misspelling of “poem”; I’ve never heard of this word
Yesterday’s word
The word asperse means
- sprinkle – especially with holy water
- to attack with evil reports or false or injurious charges
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1400s
Background / Comments
I am familiar with the noun form, in the phrase “casting aspersions”, in which the noun form of our word has essentially the same meaning as the second definition of our word. However, I did not know that “aspersion” can mean “a sprinkling with water”. Our word came from the Latin verb aspergere (to sprinkle).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 