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calumny (KAL-uhm-nee) - n., a false and malicious statement designed to injure someone's reputation.
Can be countable or uncountable -- either a lie or the set of all the lies. When you utter a calumny, you commit slander (or, if you write it, you commit libel). The rarely used verb form is calumniate, which honestly sounds odd -- I'd expect calumnate, but that's English for ya. The term has been around since around 1400 in Middle English form calumnīe, from either Old French calomnie or directly from Latin calumnia, false statement/malicious charge, probably from calvor, to deceive (though it'd be via an unusual participle form).
---L.
Can be countable or uncountable -- either a lie or the set of all the lies. When you utter a calumny, you commit slander (or, if you write it, you commit libel). The rarely used verb form is calumniate, which honestly sounds odd -- I'd expect calumnate, but that's English for ya. The term has been around since around 1400 in Middle English form calumnīe, from either Old French calomnie or directly from Latin calumnia, false statement/malicious charge, probably from calvor, to deceive (though it'd be via an unusual participle form).
---L.
