Demerit
has reversed its original meaning (Latin, demereo, to merit, to deserve). Hence Plautus, Demerĭtas dare laudas (to accord due praise); Ovid, Numĭna culta demeruisse; Livy, demerēri beneficio civitatem. The de- is intensive, as in “de-mand,” “describe,” “de-claim,” etc.; not the privative deorsum, as in the word “de-fame.”
“My demerits [deserts]
May speak unbonneted.”
1
Shakespeare: Othello, i. 2.
