A short new to me one. 'deride' ( see anagram thread)
I sort of felt you cannot say: I deride you ( or this or that ).
When I tried to find sentences with the word I only saw the form 'derided' It looks as if it can't be conjugated. I tried to find out what sort of verbs are those that can't be conjugated and why.
But got lost in transitives and di- and tri- transitives
and (?)intransitive.
OED has a citation, "Mockers and flouters who..deride everie man." It's from 1581 but, given the slightly old fashioned feel to it, it sounds fine to me.
AHD has this, which I was surprised at, having never heard or read of this verb being conjugated:
TRANSITIVE VERB:
de·rid·ed, de·rid·ing, de·rides Total aside: dag nab it, here we are in the middle of December and having shirtsleeve weather!
(It was 62ºF/16.6ºC this afternoon! Outrage!)
We were -10 F last night: trade you !!
At least they still conjugated in those days.
( yep Jackie, freezing here too!!! Skating frenzy starts )
Having been an object of derision by classmates when once during a gym class in elementary school I was knocked out when I failed to block a left hook during boxing instruction: there has always been this undercurrent of contempt associated with the word deride. Webster's states this well "He who derides is actuated by a severe a contemptuous spirit; as, to deride one for his religious principles." It really doesn't matter that my pugilistic abilities never went far but the incident made me sensitive to the abilities of others. ( Long Island has enjoyed a few warm days. However and "Alberta Clipper" is headed our way.
"ridicule, mock, taunt1, twit, deride " Looks like it's just a less used and 'chiquer' word for ridicule. Always liked the word 'pugilist'.
Such a pure word for a messy sport.
[quote=BranShea]"ridicule, mock, taunt1, twit, deride " Looks like it's just a less used and 'chiquer' word for ridicule. [quote]
I think there's a subtle distinction. Ridicle tends to be more superficial, whereas deride, IMHO, imples a more complete and insulting deconstruction.
IMHO I agree with both of you.
Ridicule sounds more cheerfrul too. (can I keep the typo?)