denigrateyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[denigrate 词源字典]
denigrate: [16] To denigrate people is literally to ‘blacken’ them. The word comes from Latin dēnigrāre ‘blacken’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē- and niger ‘black’. This adjective, which is of unknown origin, also produced French noir ‘black’ and Italian nero ‘black’, and is the source (via Spanish negro) of English negro [16] and the now taboo nigger [18]. Denigrate originally meant ‘physically turn something black’ as well as the metaphorical ‘defame, belittle’: ‘This lotion will denigrate the hairs of hoary heads’, Richard Tomlinson, Renodaeus’ Medicinal dispensatory 1657.
=> negro, nigger[denigrate etymology, denigrate origin, 英语词源]
denigrate (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1520s, from Latin denigratus, past participle of denigrare "to blacken, defame," from de- "completely" (see de-) + nigr-, stem of niger "black" (see Negro). which is of unknown origin. "Apparently disused in 18th c. and revived in 19th c." [OED]. Related: Denigrated; denigrating.