Other forms: disparaging, disparaged, disparages
To disparage is to speak of somebody as if they were worth little. Disparage his efforts, disparaged in public, not to disparage anybody.
It is formal and belongs to writing rather than speech, where people say run down or belittle. The original sense was to marry somebody to a person of lower rank, which is where the idea of lowering somebody's worth came from.
1verbdisparageTo speak of somebody as if they were worth little.
“It's unkind to disparage other people's work just to make your own look better.”
disparage is a belittling.
disPARAGE → talked down like an old car in a GARAGE
Whatever she made, he found a way to say it was worth about as much as an old car left standing in a garage.
hooks ontogarage
Old French desparagier meant to marry below one's rank — des, away, plus parage, equal rank.
Old French
desparage
Middle English
disparage
English, today
disparage
Built from
From Middle English disparage, disparagen, from Old French desparage, desparagier, from des- (“dis-”) + parage (“equal rank, rank”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA