invective

Etymology

From Middle French invective, from Medieval Latin invectiva (“abusive speech”), from Latin invectīvus, from invectus, perfect passive participle of invehō (“bring in”), from in- + vehō (“carry”). See vehicle, and compare with inveigh.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvɛktɪv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪv
• Rhymes: -ɛktɪv

Noun

invective (countable and uncountable, plural invectives)

1. An expression which inveighs or rails against a person.
2. A severe or violent censure or reproach.
3. Something spoken or written, intended to cast shame, disgrace, censure, or reproach on another.
   • 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:

     And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him.

   • 2013 September 14, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎, page R28:

     [A] savage passage of 14th-century invective about the text-obsessed nerdiness of the Florentine bibliophile and friend of Petrarch, Niccolò Niccoli ...

4. A harsh or reproachful accusation.

   Politics can raise invective to a low art.

Adjective

invective (comparative more invective, superlative most invective)

1. Characterized by invection or railing.

   Tom's speeches became diatribes — each more invective than the last.

Pronunciation

• Homophones: invectivent, invectives

Noun

invective f (plural invectives)

1. invective

Verb

invective

1. inflection of invectiver:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “invective”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Verb

invective

1. inflection of invectivar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative