Defamation necessarily involves the idea of disgrace.
In this sense, a communication is defamatory if it tends to lower the person in the estimation of the community or if it deters third parties from associating or dealing with the person defamed. But defamation occurs only when the defamatory information is communicated to someone other than the person to whom it refers. In general, libel is written defamation. Slander is oral defamation. Slander as a matter of law also includes defamatory statements that impugn a crime or a loathsome disease to the plaintiff or that impugn unchastity to a female plaintiff.