Why this word is great
DISPARAGE — [Verb] To speak of or treat someone or something as being of little worth; to belittle or depreciate. From Middle English disparagen, from Old French desparagier, from des- ("dis-") + parage ("equal rank, lineage"), a feudal term for the original injury of being deemed unworthy of one's station. Unlike "denigrate," which blackens with corrosive malice, or "belittle," which shrinks a specific merit, to disparage is to administer a cool, condescending demotion. It is the critic's faint praise that damns a novel, the patronizing pat that accompanies 'Well, you tried,' the deliberate choice of a cheaper wine when toasting a rival's success—a quiet violence performed not by shattering, but by steadily lowering the temperature of regard until the very air grows cold with diminished worth.