Demerit has reversed its original meaning (Latin, demereo, to merit, to deserve). Hence Plautus,
Demertas dare laudas (to accord due praise); Ovid, Numina culta demeruisse; Livy, dernerèri beneficio
civitatem. The de - is intensive, as in "de-mand," "de-scribe," "de-claim," etc.; not the privative deorsum,
as in the word "de-fame."