traduce

Etymology

1530s, from Latin trādūcō (“carry over; lead as a spectacle, dishonor”), from trāns + dūcō (“I lead”). Sense of “malign, defame” from 1580s. Compare cognate transduce, from Latin trānsdūcō.

verb

1. (transitive) To malign a person or entity by making malicious and false or defamatory statements.
   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. 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.i
   Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. 1935, W. & E. Muir, transl., The Trial, translation of Der Prozess by Franz Kafka
2. (archaic, transitive) To pass on (to one's children, future generations etc.); to transmit.
3. (archaic, transitive) 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. 1865 Mar, “The Last of the Tercentenary”, in Temple Bar, volume XIII