Detraction
Detraction comes from detract, which means to diminish; a taking away (not to be confused with a retraction).
A detraction is the opposite of an attraction; a detracting from what seems to be good, the disclosure of something bad about someone or something. Detraction can be either positive or negative.
Positive detraction
Sometimes detraction represents a positive value, as in "truth in advertising" or a corporate policy of "full disclosure". For example:
- If you love peace and quiet and you’re thinking about buying a house, a location on a major road would be a detraction.
In peer review, problems of methodology in scientific research and development and medicine, and in scholarly research or biblical exegesis, detraction is a crucial element of discernment of error.
- ‘The proposals include no detraction from the archaeology as this has been, and will be carefully researched, preserved, and protected.’
As a neutral expression of factual disclosure, detraction can be useful. Detraction is thus generally dispraise, even disparagement.
Negative detraction
The act of speaking disrespectfully, especially the act of speaking contemptuously, of someone or something can also be a malicious discrediting of what is worthy of respect and honor or detracting from someone's character, accomplishments, etc., by revealing hidden faults, especially by slander, sometimes involving the spreading of falsehoods believed to be true.
What is called in Christian moral theology the Sin of Detraction, is a special case. In Roman Catholic theology, detraction is the sin of revealing another person's real faults to a third person without a valid reason, thereby lessening the reputation of that person. As the definition indicates, in order to be guilty of detraction, you have to say something that you either know to be true or a falsehood you believe to be true. Detraction is therefore defined as the unjust damaging of another's good name by the revelation of some fault or crime of which that other is really guilty or at any rate is seriously believed to be guilty by the defamer. A disordered and misguided sense of justice can motivate the unnecessary disclosure of facts that ruin the public reputation and established authority and influence of persons who have sincerely dedicated themselves to doing good, and are seeking to inspire others to do good.
Detraction differs from the sin of calumny and the civil wrong of defamation, both of which generally involve false accusations rather than unflattering truths.
The meaning of the Hebrew term Satan is "Accuser". Compare 12:10.