Some people just love to criticize.
If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.
Margaret Thatcher
Unsurprisingly, the recipients of that criticism have their own vocabulary for describing critics, and it’s rarely flattering.
Consider doryphore, a word used by British politician and author Harold Nicolson in the 1950s to describe critics he felt were pests. The word is French for “potato beetle”.
Being the target of a critic’s tedious scolding is a trial, and the word jobation reflects that. It has its origins in the Biblical story of Job, the righteous man whose faith was tested by brutal hardships and persecution.
Those who suffer the jobation of critics no doubt coined the word fustigate; it comes from the Latin word fustis, a cudgel. It’s the act of delivering a painful physical or verbal beating.
Join us next week for more verbal treats!
