to criticize severely, harshly (to the point of feeling humiliated or mortified)
“1911, Quintilian, Ignacio Rodríguez, Pedro Sandier, Instituciones Oratorias, Vol. 1, 333” — Let's always guard ourselves from criticizing severely.
Related: zaherimiento, zaherío
Somewhat disputed; according to the Royal Spanish Academy, from Old Spanish façerir, from *fazferir, from faz (“make!, do!”) + ferir (“to hurt”). However, many etymologists have suggested that faz in fazferir could not have turned into za(z), even if it did convert into haz during the Spanish conversion of f to h and have suggested the word comes from Latin subferire (“to censor, reproach”) with za being a common outcome of the Latin sub- prefix, as seen in words such as zabullir (“to submerge”)