deprecate or depreciate?
To deprecate something is to condemn it as wrong in itself: We deprecate the use of public money for nonessential purposes. To depreciate something is to belittle or disparage it, even though it may not be wrong or bad in itself: They were constantly depreciating our attempts to speak Italian. This use is increasingly rare. Admittedly, self-deprecate goes a long way toward blurring the distinction, for it means "belittle yourself," not "condemn yourself"; in this sense it is well established, but it may be best regarded as the exception rather than the rule. Both words have more common synonyms: condemn, deplore, and disapprove of for deprecate, and belittle, disparage, and decry for depreciate. Depreciate is also commonly used intransitively (without an object), in financial contexts, to mean "lose value": The value of the yen has depreciated 20 percent in real terms.
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