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Webster 1913 Edition


Stigmatize

Stig′ma-tize

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Stigmatized
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Stigmatizing
.]
[F.
stigmatiser
, Gr. [GREEK].]
1.
To mark with a stigma, or brand;
as, the ancients
stigmatized
their slaves and soldiers
.
That . . . hold out both their ears with such delight and ravishment, to be
stigmatized
and bored through in witness of their own voluntary and beloved baseness.
Milton.
2.
To set a mark of disgrace on; to brand with some mark of reproach or infamy.
To find virtue extolled and vice
stigmatized
.
Addison.

Webster 1828 Edition


Stigmatize

STIGMATIZE

, v.t.
1.
To mark with a brand; in a literal sense; as, the ancients stigmatized their slaves and soldiers.
2.
To set a mark of disgrace on; to disgrace with some not of reproach or infamy.
To find virtue extolled and vice stigmatized--
Sour enthusiasts affect to stigmatize the finest and most elegant authors, ancient and modern, as dangerous to religion.

Definition 2024


stigmatize

stigmatize

English

Alternative forms

Verb

stigmatize (third-person singular simple present stigmatizes, present participle stigmatizing, simple past and past participle stigmatized)

  1. (transitive) To characterize as disgraceful or ignominious; to mark with a stigma or stigmata.
    • 1819-1820, Washington Irving, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon:
      We stigmatize the Indians, also, as cowardly and treacherous, because they use stratagem in warfare in preference to open force; but in this they are fully justified by their rude code of honor.
    • 2010, Mark McClelland, "The 'Beautiful Boy' in Japanese Girls' Manga", in Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives (ed. Toni Johnson-Woods), The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc (2010), ISBN 9780826429377, page 78:
      Helen Hardacre, in her study of discourses stigmatizing women who have had abortions, argues that there has been a marked rise in media interest in women's sexuality since the 1970s.
    • 2012, Daphne C. Watkins & Harold W. Neighbors, "Social Determinants of Depression and the Black Male Experience", in Social Determinants of Health Among African-American Men (eds. Henrie M. Treadwell, Clare Xanthos, & Kisha B. Holden), Jossey-Bass (2013), ISBN 9780470931103, page 55:
      This chapter examines the social determinants of depression in black men because no other race-by-gender population group has been stigmatized as much as black men.

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