“It is the duty of every citizen according to his
best capacities to give validity to his
convictions in political affairs.”

- Albert Einstein

Verjuice, literally, is the sour juice of unripe fruits, especially crabapples and grapes. Figuratively, verjuice is sourness of temperament, disposition, or expression. It is the hallmark of a curmudgeon, itself an interesting word, generally described in dictionaries as of unknown origin though Samuel Johnson (the English lexicographer, 1709-1784) says in his Dictionary: "It is a vitious [the old spelling, based on Latin vitiosus] manner of pronouncing coeur méchant [ French for wicked heart ]. . ."

To traduce someone is to slander him, vilify him, malign, defame, and calumniate him, speak falsely and with malice toward him or his character; from Latin traducere (to disgrace), a variant of transducere (literally, to carry over; figuratively, to expose, "show up"). In Shakespeare's Othello (Act V, Scene 2), Othello cries to Lodovico who has come to arrest him:

...In Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the State,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog
And smote him thus.

Whereupon, he obeys Shakespeare's stage directions: Stabs himself. Things are tough all around and it's a bloody mess; but getting back to words and definitions, avoid the common error of identifying slander or defame with libel. Without going into legal minutiae and ramifications, libel is slander in written form and "published", i.e., communicated in that form to a third party or parties. Best advice: Keep your mouth shut and your pen in your pocket.