What does animadverting mean?
Animadverting is the present participle of the verb 'animadvert', meaning to make critical or censorious remarks about a person, work, or course of action. To animadvert upon something is not merely to mention it but to find fault with it explicitly — the word carries an inherent note of blame or disapproval. The term derives from the Latin animadvertere, formed from animus ('mind') and advertere ('to turn toward'), so it literally describes turning one's mind toward something; in English, adopted in the early seventeenth century, that attention hardened into open criticism. Today the word is formal and rather old-fashioned, surviving mainly in literary criticism, legal commentary, and historical prose, where writers may animadvert on a colleague's errors or animadvert upon a policy's shortcomings. Its noun counterpart, animadversion, is somewhat better known. For readers who enjoy precise vocabulary, animadverting offers an elegant way to signal that criticism is deliberate, considered, and pointed.
verbPresent participle of the verb 'animadvert': to make critical or censorious remarks about something; to comment adversely.
- To make critical or censorious remarks about someone or something; to pass adverse comment.
"The reviewer spent several paragraphs animadverting upon the author's careless scholarship."
"In his closing address, the chairman could not resist animadverting on the committee's repeated delays."
"The pamphleteer became notorious for animadverting upon the morals of fashionable society."
This formal verb of censure comes from Latin words meaning 'mind' and 'turn toward' — literally, to turn your mind toward someone's faults in order to call them out.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of animadverting
Animadverting derives from the Latin verb animadvertere, a compound of animus ('mind, spirit') and advertere ('to turn toward'), originally meaning to give heed to or notice something. English adopted the verb in the early seventeenth century, and its sense shifted from mere observation to the passing of judgment, so that to animadvert came to mean to criticize or censure. It shares its Latin roots with words such as advert, adverse, animation, and unanimous.
Related word forms
How animadverting is actually used
Formal and somewhat old-fashioned; found chiefly in literary, legal, and historical writing rather than everyday speech. It typically takes 'upon' or 'on' as its object-introducing preposition.
Easily confused with animadverting
'Advert' means simply to turn attention to or refer to something, whereas 'animadvert' specifically means to comment critically or censuringly upon it.