Monday, August 25, 2008

word of the day

BERATE:
To scold severely or angrily.

"i would berate the guy if he would answer my phone call."

This doesn't even sound like a real word. But apparently it was used in the Washington post in 1981. Do people even talk like that? "I'm going to berate you!" If someone said that to me I don't think I could take them seriously. I expect this word to be written in some turn of the century novel not in everyday conversation. Perhaps I will try using it in a sentence and see what kind of reaction I get.

1 comment:

Levi Bagdanov said...

I fell like the word "berate" is often used when describing what someone did to you. "She berated me because I left the toilet seat up." Or "I felt berated" I don't think that would sound to strange,