vilipend [vil-uh-pend]

verb:
(Archaic)
1 to regard or treat as of little value or account.
2 to vilify; depreciate.

Examples:

The fact that to the eighteenth century belong the subjects of more than half of these thirty volumes, is a proof of the fascination of the period for an author who has never ceased to vilipend it. (John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, Volume 1)

What discontent thus change in the doth move?
What wrong, (alas !), or what offence in me,
Thus maks the loath and vilipend my love ? (Sir William Mure, Dido and Aeneas)

He became a gay visitor, and such a reveller, that in process of time he was observed to vilipend the modest fare which had at first been esteemed a banquet by his hungry appetite, and thereby highly displeased my wife. (Sir Walter Scott, Waverley)

I would not willingly vilipend any Christian, if, peradventure, he deserveth that epithet. (Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker)

Origin:

Etymologically speaking, to define vilipend using vilify is to commit a tautology, since both derive from Latin vilis, vile or worthless, which is also obviously enough the source of English vile. Vilipend also includes the verb pendere, to weigh or estimate. To vilipend is to weigh somebody in the balance and find them not worth considering. It appeared in English in the fifteenth century and was a popular term right down into the nineteenth, though it has since dropped out of sight. (World Wide Words)

excoriate [ik-skawr-ee-eyt, -skohr-]

verb:
1 to denounce or berate severely; flay verbally
2 to strip off or remove the skin from

Examples:

I've had many worse evenings at musicals. But I fail to see the point of a show that doesn't know whether it wants to excoriate The X Factor or boost its TV ratings. (Michael Billington, I Can't Sing! review - 'Uneasily pitched between send-up and celebration', The Guardian, March 2014)

There is strife ahead, to be sure, but this is not a dour, sentimental exercise in which the misunderstood subject comes to a sad end while the survivors rend their governments and excoriate themselves for never having listened, really listened, and then drive out to the country to dedicate a tree. (Robert Lloyd, Review: In 'Butterfly,' gender identity is at the heart of Hulu's new family drama, Los Angeles Times, January 2019)

The drops of rain bruise us, false notes excoriate us, darknesses blind us! (Gustave Flaubert, The Temptation of St Anthony)

...insects still hum in the sunny air, and the sun is now a genial orb whose warm rays cheer but not excoriate. (Frank Richard Stockton, The Late Mrs Null)

Every blow that shakes it will serve to harden it against a future stroke; as constant labour thickens the skin of the hand, and strengthens its muscles instead of wasting them away: so that a day of arduous toil, that might excoriate a lady's palm, would make no sensible impression on that of a hardy ploughman. ( Anne Bronte, Agnes Grey)

Origin:

'to flay, strip off the skin of, to break and remove the outer layers of the skin in any manner,' early 15c, from Late Latin excoriatus, past participle of excoriare 'flay, strip off the hide,' from Latin ex 'out, out of, off' + corium 'hide, skin'. Figurative sense of 'denounce, censure' is recorded in English by 1708. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Excoriate, which first appeared in English in the 15th century, comes from excoriatus, the past participle of the Late Latin verb excoriare, meaning 'to strip off the hide.' Excoriare was itself formed from a pairing of the Latin prefix ex-, meaning 'out,' and corium, meaning 'skin' or 'hide' or 'leather.' Corium has several other descendants in English. One is 'cuirass,' a name for a piece of armor that covers the body from neck to waist (or something, such as bony plates covering an animal, that resembles such armor). Another is 'corium' itself, which is sometimes used as a synonym of 'dermis' (the inner layer of human skin) (Merriam-Webster)

expostulate [ik-spos-chuh-leyt]

verb:
to reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done, remonstrate

Examples:

That the unofficial pope of Western atheism should expostulate about God in moments when life is a struggle does not of course mean that deep down atheists believe in God after all. (How much Christianity is hidden in British society?, BBC News, February 2012)

But her style, it is suggested (for what happened at those audiences was wholly confidential) was never to expostulate - merely to ask a leading question, or to drop a subtle hint. (Sarah Gristwood, Opinion: Why singing 'God Save the King' catches in the throat , CNN, September 2022 )

The generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command; she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate. (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein)

The patriarch sent me to expostulate the matter with the King, which I did in very warm terms, telling him that we were assured by the Emperor of a reception in this country far different from what we met with, which assurances he had confirmed by his promise and the civilities we were entertained with at our first arrival; but that instead of friends who would compassionate our miseries, and supply our necessities, we found ourselves in the midst of mortal enemies that wanted to destroy us. (Father Lobo, A Voyage to Abyssinia)

The poems drift from one focus to another; they avoid the histrionic; they sigh more often than they expostulate. (Vendler, Helen, 'Robert Lowell's Last Days and Last Poems.' from Robert Lowell: A Tribute)

Origin:

1530s, 'to demand, to claim,' from Latin expostulatus, past participle of expostulare 'to demand urgently, remonstrate, find fault, dispute, complain of, demand the reason (for someone's conduct),' from ex 'from' + postulare 'to demand'. Friendlier sense of 'to reason earnestly (with someone) against a course of action, etc.' is first recorded in English 1570s. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

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)