execrate

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 27, 2014 is: execrate • \EK-suh-krayt\  • verb 1 : to declare to be evil or detestable : denounce 2 : to detest utterly Examples: The school principal execrated the individuals who had stolen the cashbox from the raffle table. "Long execrated by Republicans as a 'death tax,' the posthumous federal levy on accumulated wealth has Democratic detractors as well, especially those who represent significant numbers of rural landowners." - The Washington Post, December 12, 2012 Did you know? To Latinists, there's nothing cryptic about the origins of "execrate"-the word derives from "exsecratus," the past participle of the Latin verb "exsecrari," meaning "to put under a curse." "Exsecrari" was itself created by combining the prefix "ex-" ("not") and the word "sacer" ("sacred"). "Sacer" is also an ancestor of such English words as "sacerdotal" ("relating to priests"), "sacral" ("holy or sacred"), "sacrifice," "sacrilege," and of course "sacred" itself. There's also "execration," which, true to its "exsecrari" roots, means "the act of cursing" or "the curse so uttered." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.