reprehend

PRONUNCIATION (rep-ri-HEND)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To disapprove or to reprimand.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin reprehendere (to hold back, to censure), from re- (intensive) + prehendere (to seize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize or to take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, pregnant, osprey, prison, get, impregnable, impresa, and prise. Earliest documented use: 1382.
USAGE:
"The false quotation was therefore one of those flashy worthless attempts at wit that I so much reprehend in others."
Patrick O'Brian; The Truelove; W.W. Norton; 1993.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Never cut what you can untie. -Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
===========================================================

REPREHEN - to scold the chicken who ate the corn but didn't lay an egg. Scold her twice before she doesn't lay another egg because some chickens are dim-witted.