mindmap root((DE)) debase To lower the value or reputation of someone or something.
🌱Every year she complains about how Christmas has been debased by commercialism. 🌳Debase is often used to talk about someone's lowered status or character. People are constantly blustering about the debased tastes of the ordinary American, and especially the debased music of America's youth. A commentator might observe that both candidates had managed to debase themselves by the end of a political campaign. Debase has a special meaning in economics: From time to time, governments find that they need to quietly debase their countries' currency by reducing the percentage of valuable metal in its coins; if they don't, the metal may become more valuable than the coin and people will begin melting the coins down and reselling the metal. defamation The harming of someone's reputation by libel or slander.
🌱In a famous case in 1735, the newspaper publisher J. P. Zenger was found not guilty of defamation because everything he had printed about the plaintiff was true. 🌳Harming someone's reputation in speech with falsehoods is known as slander, and doing the same thing in writing is known as libel （which sometimes includes speech as well）. Any ordinary citizen who can claim to have suffered harm as a result of such defamation may sue. So why aren't politicians suing all the time? Because an exception is made for "public persons" （a category that includes most other celebrities as well）, who must also prove that any such statement was made with "reckless disregard for the truth." And although, even by that standard, public persons are defamed all the time, most of them have decided that it's better to just grin and bear it. degenerative Causing the body or part of the body to become weaker or less able to function as time passes.
🌱Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease of the brain, marked by the decline of mental and physical abilities. 🌳Degenerative diseases—including cancer, glaucoma, Parkinson's, diabetes, arthritis, and leprosy—are usually contrasted with infectious diseases （diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa）. However, many infectious diseases （Lyme disease, AIDS, etc.） can cause a body or body part to degenerate, and infective organisms play a part in some degenerative diseases. Some degenerative diseases can be controlled; some can even be cured. But no one has yet discovered a way to reverse such degenerative conditions as multiple sclerosis, emphysema, or Alzheimer's. dejection Sadness, depression, or lowness of spirits.
🌱Her friends were puzzled by her frequent periods of dejection, which seemed to occur with no obvious cause. 🌳Based partly on the Latin iacere, "to throw" （See JECT,） dejection means literally "cast down"—that is, "downcast." Like melancholy, gloom, and even sadness, dejection seems to have been declining in use for many years; instead, we now seem to prefer depression （whose roots mean basically "a pressing down". Since depression is also the word used by doctors, lots of people now assume that anyone depressed should be taking an antidepressant; if we went back to dejected and dejection, we might not be so quick to make that assumption.