Etymology

defamatory

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Today it means: Damaging to someone's reputation, especially if untrue. Full definition →

Middle French diffamatoire ← Medieval Latin diffāmātōrius
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The story

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromdiffāmātōrius
  2. Middle French · borrowed fromdiffamatoire
  3. English todaydefamatory

From Middle French diffamatoire (altered after the prefix de-), from Medieval Latin diffāmātōrius.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.