[‘ /trans./ To rebuke severely; to chide, scold.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈɒbdʒəɡeɪt/, U.S. /ˈɑbdʒərˌɡeɪt/
Forms: 16 *obiurgate*, 16 18– *objurgate*.
Etymology: < classical Latin /obiurgāt-, past participial stem (compare -ate suffix3) of /obiurgāre to reprimand, rebuke, chastise < /ob-* ob- prefix + /iurgāre* to quarrel, scold < /iūr-*, /iūs* law (see jure n.) + *-igāre*, verbal suffix also seen in *lītigāre/ litigate v. Compare Middle French /objurger* (1520), Middle French, French /objurguer/ (1546). Compare earlier objurgation n.
N.E.D. (1902) also records a pronunciation with stress on the second syllable. This stress pattern is also noted by Wyld (1932) and Webster (1934), and is recorded as a less common variant in U.S. usage in the 15th ed. of D. Jones Eng. Pronouncing Dict. (1997).
*1.* /trans./ To rebuke severely; to chide, scold.
1616 J. Bullokar /Eng. Expositor/, /Obiurgate/, to chide, to reprooue sharpely.
1832 /New-Eng. Mag./ June 470 The want of a specific name is a great obstacle in the way of conciseness, for which we may objurgate the naturalists.
1854 R. S. Surtees /Handley Cross/ li. 364 He then took to jagging and objurgating the horse, which put it out of his head.
1873 H. B. Tristram /Land of Moab/ v. 90 The old man..objurgated his son.
1893 W. K. Post /Harvard Stories/ 49, I could hear him objurgating Steve Hudson for hitting up the stroke.
1914 /Amer. Hist. Rev./ *19* 603 The aim of the author seems rather to have been to emphasize the indubitable virtues of Queen Mary and her adherents, than to objurgate Foxe and his heroes.
1921 E. L. White /Andivius Hedulio/ ii. xxi. 315 Clitellus thickly objurgated his comrade and all weakheads, worthless fellows.
1987 /Sunset/ (Nexis) Sept. 184 He also objurgates users of ground beef. If you can’t get buffalo..meat, use cubed lean beef chuck instead.
*2.* /intr./ To remonstrate; to complain; to rail against.
1642 Bp. J. Taylor /Of Sacred Order Episcopacy/ xiv. 76 Command, but not objurgate.
1837 T. Carlyle /French Revol./ II. v. vii. 328 This poor Legislative,..cannot act; can only objurgate and perorate.
/a/1843 R. Southey in /Select. from Lett./ (1856) IV. 544 So very slowly they proceeded, That Job might have objurgated as we did.
1874 /Overland Monthly/ Apr. 369/2 If you step on one [/sc./ a toad] after nightfall, it will be useless to objurgate. You cannot provoke him to talk back.
/a/1902 F. Norris /Pit/ (1903) i. 37 Outside upon the sidewalks..policemen with drawn clubs laboured and objurgated: anxious, preoccupied young men,..hurried to and fro, searching for their carriages.
1926 W. Lewis /Art of being Ruled/ iv. v. 123 He provided a sanction and licence..for life—the very life that he never ceased himself to objurgate against.
1989 F. Kuppner /Ridiculous! Absurd! Disgusting!/ 36 Enough of reasons, impatiently he—the father—objurgates. It is necessary.
Derivatives
ˈobjurgated n. and adj.
1867 /De Bow’s Rev./ Mar. 238 Many a stout commoner,..while he declaims with irascible eloquence against the abuse of class, is..taxing his last energy to swell in his own person the list of the objurgated.
1887 A. Birrell /Obiter Dicta/ 2nd Ser. 54 A history of thought during this objurgated period.
1904 W. E. Chancellor & E. W. Hewes /United States/ I. vi. 129 All of this testifies eloquently to the interesting nature of early Virginian life in the Chesapeake bay region, and to the high average quality of the frequently objurgated colonials.
1951 /Times/ 6 Nov. 8/4 The mouth organ..is a tinny instrument rising at its best to the objurgated vox humana stop of the pipe organ.
ˈobjurgating adj. and n.
1858 W. B. Pope tr. R. Stier /Words of Lord Jesus/ VII. 386 Lampe rightly calls this ‘an objurgating reproof plainly at variance with his preceding fear’ [L. objurgans increpatio timori praecedenti plane contraria (1726)].
1893 /Times/ 16 Mar. 9/4 All the hypo~critical whining and objurgating in the world will not alter their determination.
1986 P. L. Fermor /Between Woods & Water/ (1988) vii. 181 Somebody’s objurgating voice calling down the curses of the Dragon’s mother.