fustigate means to hit someone with a club. It carries an Arena rating of 1668, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, fustigate ranks #247 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #289 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,321 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,377 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “fustigate” is a great word
FUSTIGATE — [Verb] To beat someone with a club or cudgel, or, figuratively, to criticize someone harshly and severely. First attested in 1656; from Latin fūstīgātus, past participle of fūstīgāre ("to cudgel"), from fūstis ("a club, cudgel") + the verbal suffix -igāre. Unlike "censure," which implies formal, measured disapproval, or "thrash," a blunt term for a modern beating, "fustigate" retains the archaic heft of oak and the literary sting of a truly exquisite rebuke. It is the phantom ache in the shoulders from a long-forgotten weapon, the percussive rhythm of a polemicist’s most devastating paragraph, and the precise, bruising weight of a perfectly chosen word in a withering review—a word that makes criticism a tangible, wearying violence.
Etymology
First attested in 1656; borrowed from Latin fūstīgātus, perfect passive participle of fūstīgō (“to cudgel to death”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from fūstis (“a cudgel”) + -igō.
verb
- To hit someone with a club.
- To harshly criticize someone.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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