Containing or involving false and damaging accusations; slanderous, defamatory, or deceptive.
From Latin 'calumniosus,' derived from 'calumnia,' with the adjective suffix '-ous' meaning 'full of' or 'characterized by.'
Medieval scholars distinguished between 'calumnious' speech (deliberately false) and other forms of dishonest speech—this showed they understood the specific danger of false accusations.
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