invective

Definition

An expression which inveighs or rails against a person.

Etymology

From Middle French invective, from Medieval Latin invectiva (“abusive speech”), from Latin invectīvus, from invectus, perfect passive participle of invehō (“bring in”), from in- + vehō (“carry”). See vehicle, and compare with inveigh.

Example Sentences

• "And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him."
• "[A] savage passage of 14th-century invective about the text-obsessed nerdiness of the Florentine bibliophile and friend of Petrarch, Niccolò Niccoli ..."
• "Politics can raise invective to a low art."