The English Oracle

Evolution of 'deign' and 'disdain'

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Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Book End

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Chapters
00:00 Evolution Of 'Deign' And 'Disdain'
00:55 Accepted Answer Score 3
01:18 Thank you

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Full question
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Tags
#etymology

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 3


The author of this blog entry was wondering the very same thing, and came up with this:

Both words come from Latin "dignari", "to judge worthy". The "-gn" of "deign" comes from Old French "deigner", a close successor to "dignari"; its disappearance in "disdain" comes from a newer, Middle English version of the word "deinen", and its offshoot, "disdainen" (when spelling was a lot freer than it is now).