Sunday Word: Fustigate

[sallymn]

fustigate [fuhs-ti-geyt]

verb:
1 to cudgel; beat; punish severely
2 to criticize harshly; castigate:

Examples:

It is even less English to fustigate an opponent at that stage. And it is not English at all to do it with a swagger and panache that goes beyond taking the largest amount of piss possible out of whomever you’re playing. (Sam Fels, WTF! A backheeled nutmeg winner at Women's Euro 2022, Deadspin, July 2022)

He fustigates only those propositions that go against the evidence in the service of an undeniable initial lie. (Herbert Southworth, Guernica! Guernica!: A Study of a Journalism, Diplomacy, Propaganda, and History)

And she bade them bash me; so they beat me on my ribs and the marks ye saw are the scars of that fustigation. (Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night)

"Right you are, sir," says I, "we'll fustigate the mounseers and extipulate them to the last individual." (Herbert Strang, Boys of the Light Brigade)

Origin:

'to cudgel, to beat,' 1650s, back-formation from Fustication (1560s) or from Latin fusticatus, past participle of fusticare 'to cudgel' (to death), from fustis 'cudgel, club, staff, stick of wood,' of unknown origin. De Vaan writes that 'The most obvious connection would be with Latin -futare' 'to beat,' but there are evolutionary difficulties. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

A modern fustigation won’t leave a bump on your head, but severe criticism can be a blow to your self-esteem. When fustigate first left its mark on the English language in the mid-17th century, it did so with the meaning 'to cudgel or beat with a short heavy club' - a sense that reflects the word’s Latin source, the noun fustis, meaning 'club' or 'staff'. (Beat, 'to strike repeatedly', is also a distant relative of fustis.) The 'criticize' sense of fustigate may be more common these days, but the violent use is occasionally a hit with sportswriters who employ it metaphorically to suggest how badly a team has been drubbed by their opponent. (Merriam-Webster)