traduce

verb

Etymology: From Latin trādūcō (“carry over; lead as a spectacle, dishonor”), from trāns + dūcō (“to lead”). Doublet of transduce, from Latin trānsdūcō.

1. To malign a person or entity by making malicious and false or defamatory statements.

   “This heauy headed reueale eaſt and weſt / Makes vs traduſt, and taxed of other nations, / They clip vs drunkards, and with Swiniſh phraſe / Soyle our addition […]”

   “Well I'll not debate how far Scandal may be allowable—but in a man I am sure it is always contemtable.—We have Pride, envy, Rivalship, and a Thousand motives to depreciate each other—but the male-slanderer must have the cowardice of a woman before He can traduce one.”

2. To pass on (to one's children, future generations etc.); to transmit.

   “However therefore this complexion was first acquired, it is evidently maintained by generation, and by the tincture of the skin as a spermatical part traduced from father unto son […].”

3. To pass into another form of expression; to rephrase, to translate.

   “From Davenant down to Dumas, from the Englishman who improved Macbaeth to the Frenchman who traduced into the French of Paris four acts of Hamlet, and added a new fifth act of his own, Shakespeare has been disturbed in a way he little thought of when he menacingly provided for the repose of his bones.”