At one point in Frodo’s journey in The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien depicts an ancient statue overlooking a crossroads: “Its head was gone, and in its place was set in mockery a round rough-hewn stone, rudely painted … in the likeness of a grinning face with one large red eye in the midst of its forehead.” The statue had been vandalized by orcs, but the roots of vandalize have more in common with the name of a Tolkien hero. Vandalize comes from the noun vandal, which was originally capitalized and referred to a member of a Germanic people who lived south of the Baltic Sea and sacked Rome in the year 455 CE. This sacking is what likely led to the use of the lower-case vandal for someone who damages or destroys property. The Late Latin word for such a Vandal was Vandalī, a word probably borrowed from a Germanic verb meaning “wend, turn” that also gave rise to the Old English Ēarendel, the name of a mythological figure that inspired Tolkien’s creation of Eärendil, a mariner who wends his way across the sky of Middle Earth carrying the morning star.
Our car was vandalized in the parking lot.
he decided to vandalize the store because the owner had kicked him out
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Teslas have been firebombed and vandalized, prompting an F.B.I. investigation.—Charles Singh, USA Today, 24 Apr. 2025 The audit also noted a Jewish cemetery in Waterbury that was vandalized with more than 12 gravestones desecrated.—Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 22 Apr. 2025 Police in major cities in the Islamic nation, including the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore and the capital Islamabad, confirmed at least 11 incidents in which KFC outlets were attacked by protesters armed with sticks and vandalized.—Reuters, CNN Money, 18 Apr. 2025 The house was significantly damaged by a fire years ago and has been vandalized with graffiti in recent years.—Ashley MacKin Solomon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for vandalize
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