Osx Dictionary / quote 3 of 20

verb [ with obj.

verb [ with obj. ] make (someone or something) seem unimportant: this is not to belittle his role | she felt belittled.

DERIVATIVES belittlement noun, belittler noun

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: a coinage of Thomas Jefferson originally meaning ‘diminish in size, make small’; the current sense dates from the very end of the 18th century.

Saved 26 February 2013

#nouns #verbs #century

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