demerit

Meanings

1. A quality of being inadequate; a disadvantage, a fault.
2. A mark given for bad conduct to a person attending an educational institution or serving in the army.
3. That which one merits or deserves, either of good or ill; desert.

1. To deserve.
2. To depreciate or cry down.

Etymology

From Middle English demerit, demerite, from Old French desmerite (modern French démérite) and its etymon Latin dēmeritum. By surface analysis, de- + merit.