revile

The verb "revile" entered English in the late Middle English period, borrowed from the Old French reviler, meaning "to despise, scorn". This Old French term was itself constructed from the intensive prefix re- and the adjective vil, meaning "vile, cheap". The Latin ancestor of vil is vilis, which originally described something of low value or price, a sense that broadened to encompass moral baseness and repulsiveness. Thus, the literal action of "reviling" someone is to intensely treat them as or declare them to be vile and contemptible.

Structure: re (intensive) + vile (hateful) - re: Latin origin, a prefix meaning "again" or used as an intensive prefix to add force. - vile: Latin origin, from vilis meaning "cheap, base, despicable". In this word, it functions as the core root conveying the sense of something worthy of hatred or contempt.