Merriam-Webster WOTD: Besmirch

Feb 10, 2026 08:21 PM EST, Tue

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for Feb 10 is “besmirch”:

verb bih-SMERCH

What It Means To besmirch the reputation, name, honor, etc. of someone or something is to cause harm or damage to it.

// The allegations have besmirched the company’s reputation.

See the entry >

My example: February 10, 2026 was a House Homeland Security Committee meeting on the Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security: ICE CBP and USCIS at 10:00 AM.

WITNESSES:

Mr. Todd Lyons Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), DHS

The Honorable Rodney Scott Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), DHS

The Honorable Joseph Edlow Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS

Representative Sheri Biggs (T-SC3) in a fawning manner congratulations to [CBP] for securing the border calling Democrats the Trumpian trope, “theRadical Left”.

My call script to Sheri Biggs (T-SC3)

“Hi, this is Ralph Hightower calling from the Second District of South Carolina.

I’m calling about Representative Biggs’ use of the phrase ‘the radical left’ during today’s hearing. I want her office to know that comments like that don’t describe me — they besmirch Americans who care about due process, constitutional guardrails, and responsible oversight.

I spent years as an independent voter. I became a Democrat because I watched one party walk away from institutional integrity. That isn’t radical. That’s civic responsibility.

I follow these hearings because I want facts, professionalism, and accountability — not slogans or scapegoating. I’m asking Representative Biggs to choose accuracy and respect in her public statements.

Thank you for passing this along.”

The prefix be- has several applications in English; in the case of besmirch, it means “to make or cause to be.” But what does smirch itself mean? Since the 1400s, smirch has been used as a verb meaning “to make dirty, stained, or discolored.” Besmirch joined English in the early 1600s, and today smirch and besmirch are both used when something—and especially something abstract, like a reputation—is being figuratively sullied, i.e., damaged or harmed. Besmirch isn’t unique in its journey; English has a history of attaching be- to existing verbs to form synonyms. For example, befriend combines be- in its “to make or cause to be” sense with the verb friend, meaning “to act as the friend of.” Befuddle combines be- in its “thoroughly” sense with fuddle, meaning “to stupefy with or as if with drink.” And befog combines be- in its “to provide or cover with” sense with fog, meaning “to cover with or as if with fog.”

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