Other forms: slanders
Slander is spoken lies that damage a person's good name. Sue for slander, pure slander, slander and libel.
In English law slander is spoken and libel is written or broadcast, and the difference used to matter a great deal because slander generally required proof of actual loss. Both are forms of defamation. Truth is a defence to either. Note slanderous; and that slander and scandal are the same Greek word — skandalon, a stumbling block — arriving by different routes.
1nounslanderSpoken lies that damage a person's good name.
“He sued his neighbour for slander after she told everyone he was a thief.”
slander is a form of defamation.
Also accepted in games: defamation
Old French esclandre comes from Latin scandalum, a stumbling block, from Greek skandalon. Scandal is the same word borrowed again, so slander and scandal are doublets.
Ancient Greek
σκάνδαλον — scandal
Ecclesiastical Latin
scandalum — stumbling block, temptation
Old French
esclandre
Middle English
slaundre
English, today
slander
From Middle English slaundre, sclaundre, from Old French esclandre, from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“stumbling block, temptation”), from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (“scandal”). a doublet of scandal.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA