Word of the Day

: October 6, 2024

berate

verb bih-RAYT

What It Means

To berate someone is to angrily scold or criticize them, often loudly and at length.

// “Don’t berate yourself over canceling plans,” his friend told him. “Sometimes you just need to take care of yourself.”

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berate in Context

“The autonomous vehicles, which provide tens of thousands of rides each week, have been torched, stomped on, and verbally berated in recent months.” — Paresh Dave, WIRED, 22 July 2024

Did You Know?

People have berated things—and each other—for time immemorial, but the word berate has only been known to English users since the mid-1500s. Before that, if you wanted to angrily rebuke, say, an outlaw for impersonating a fortune teller in order to steal the golden hubcaps off your royal carriage, you would rate them. Berate simply added the prefix be- to the existing verb rate, which is distinct from the rate that means “to value or esteem.” While the more familiar rate comes ultimately from Latin, the origins of the less common “scolding” rate are obscure.