Word of the Day

: September 14, 2012

disapprobation

noun dis-ap-ruh-BAY-shun

What It Means

: the act or state of disapproving : the state of being disapproved : condemnation

disapprobation in Context

The man talking loudly on his cell phone garnered several looks of disapprobation before the movie even began.

"This is a classic soft-serve palace where not much has changed in decades, including the sticky picnic tables and the owner who tends toward silent disapprobation." - From a review by Laura Reiley in the Tampa Bay Times, August 2, 2012

Did You Know?

"Disapprobation" is not only a synonym of "disapproval" but a relative as well. Both words were coined in the mid-17th century by adding the prefix "dis-," meaning "the opposite or absence of," to earlier and more "approving" words: synonyms "approbation" and "approval." The Latin verb "approbare," meaning "to approve," is an ancestor of both of those words. Another descendant of "approbare" in English is "approbate," which, as you may have guessed by now, means "to approve."