vilipend

tr.v., -pend·ed, -pend·ing, -pends.

1. To view or treat with contempt; despise.
2. To speak ill of; disparage.

[Middle English vilipenden, from Old French vilipender, from Latin vīlipendere : vīlis, worthless + pendere, to consider, weigh.]

(VIL-uh-pend)

verb tr.
1. To treat someone with contempt.
2. To disparage.

Etymology
From Old French vilipender, from Latin vilipendere, from vilis (cheap, worthless) + pendere (to consider). The words vilify, vile, revile, and venal are all cousins of this word.]

Usage
"Every month those of us who teach at Columbia (the University) are supposed to be paid, and every month last fall I wasn't. This seems not to have been a value judgment. They say the computer can't find me; I am so random I am inaccessible. Still, if I were a tenant in one of the many hovels owned by the University, and failed for months to pay my rent, you can bet Columbia (the Landlord) would have flopped my disk soon enough. Most of us are tenants in this society, which is why it is necessary to anathematize and vilipend the landlords, our owners." — John Leonard; In Person; Newsday (New York); Feb 19, 1987.

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treat as of small worth ; contemn; disparage