*slanderize.
*"Slanderize" is a needless variant of "slander," vb. It seems to occur mostly in speech — e.g.:
o "'If you're a politician, you should give an awful lot of thought to what you're saying, particularly when you're going to slanderize [read 'slander'] your opponent.'" Sam Howe Verhovek, "Sticking with One of Their Men," N.Y. Times, 24 Oct. 1992, § 1, at 25 (quoting Alan Riley, a sports-card dealer).
o "'In principle, we're also opposed to any form of popular culture that slanderizes [read 'slanders'] African American women.'" Elmer Smith, "Shakur's 'Image' Problem," Sacramento Bee, 22 Jan. 1994, at B7 (quoting Don Rojas, an NAACP representative).
Language-Change Index — *"slanderize" for the verb "slander": Stage 1.
*Invariably inferior forms.
——————–
Quotation of the Day: "Most major features of Old English, that is, of the English language spoken and written before 1066, have been substantially modified or abandoned as the centuries passed. The earliest recorded version of our ancestral tongue is now virtually a foreign language. To acquire a working knowledge of its rules and procedures, native English speakers need to regard it as if it were as unEnglish as, say, modern Flemish or Swedish or German." Robert W. Burchfield, Unlocking the English Language 23 (1989).
