Word of the Day

: August 16, 2020

inveigh

verb in-VAY

What It Means

: to protest or complain bitterly or vehemently : rail

inveigh in Context

"Wearing a blue suit, [Hannah] Gadsby begins by pointing to a prop dog made of crayons onstage, immediately making fun of herself, a notable shift since 'Nanette,' when she inveighed against self-deprecation." — Jason Zinoman, The New York Times¸ 26 May 2020

"I see their anger spiking in Facebook conversations and unfurling across Twitter threads. They inveigh against the new high-occupancy lanes on Interstate 15; against the paid parking at casinos…." — Geoff Carter, The Las Vegas Weekly, 27 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

You might complain or grumble about some wrong you see, or, for a stronger effect, you can inveigh against it. Inveigh comes from the Latin verb invehere, which joins the prefix in- with the verb vehere, meaning "to carry." Invehere literally means "to carry in," and when inveigh first appeared in English, it was also used to mean "to carry in" or "to introduce." Extended meanings of invehere, however, are "to force one's way into," "to attack," and "to assail with words," and that's where the current sense of inveigh comes from. A closely related word is invective, which means "insulting or abusive language." This word, too, ultimately comes from invehere.