• disdain •
Pronunciation: dis-dayn • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. To reject as unworthy, contemptuous. 2. To regard with contempt, to consider beneath one's dignity.
Notes: Today's Good Word is often confused with several other words beginning with dis-. People disdain things. To disdain something is to hold it beneath contempt, consider it beneath our dignity. Things dismay and disgust people. Things that dismay disillusion or alarm us. Things that disgust us are so repugnant as to nauseate or deeply offend us. The adjective for today's word is disdainful. The nouns disdain and disdainfulness are near synonyms.
In Play: Holding something in contempt is disdain: "Harvey Mugwump disdains all things political and finds that life without politics works pretty well." This word also implies a rejection of anything beneath our dignity: "Izzy Allgood disdains any work that is incompatible with his high moral principles, which is pretty much any work at all."
Word History: Today's Good Word was adopted and adapted from Old French desdeignier. This word was inherited from Latin dedignari "to disdain", based on de "(away) from" + dignari "to dignify, deem worthy". Dignari comes from the adjective dignus "worthy". Its root shares a source with decere "to be fitting", the verb underlying decor "seemliness, grace, elegance" and decorum "seemliness, propriety", both used pretty much as is in English. (Today's Good Word resulted from a suggestion by Paul Rowland of Wallasey, England, whose daughter still disdains the "posh" Good Words he tries to share with her.)
DISDAIN
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7417
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
DISDAIN
• The Good Dr. Goodword
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8040
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
I've always felt it had rather pejorative connotations.I thought it a kind thing ...
See sardith's query: http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4485 and Bailey's much older post: http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2922
By the by, this is yet another great word that the Lords of the Agora have not stooped to conquer and put in the alphaDictionary dictionary.
The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk. (Ogden Nash)
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Is something rotten in Deignmark?I wonder what level of disdain has led to deign not getting onto our word list? It's been suggested, but the Dr. has not deigned to take it up as yet.
Let's hope that is soon remedied.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
Anonymous
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
The Nash quote, by contrast, is a kine thing ...I've always felt it had rather pejorative connotations.I thought it [ilk] a kind thing ...
...
The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk. (Ogden Nash)
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
Return to “Good Word Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Dr. Goodword and 57 guests