discomfit

discomfit

English

Etymology

From Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire (“to undo, to destroy”), from des- (“completely”), from Latin dis- + confire (“to make”), from Latin conficio (“to finish up, to destroy”), from com- (“with, together”) + facio (“to do, to make”).

Later sense of “to embarrass, to disconcert” due to confusion with unrelated discomfort.[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkʌmfɪt/

Verb

discomfit (third-person singular simple present discomfits, present participle discomfiting or discomfitting, simple past and past participle discomfited or discomfitted) (transitive)

1. (transitive) To embarrass (someone) greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert.

   Synonyms: abash, disconcert; see also Thesaurus:abash

   Don't worry. Your joke did not really discomfit me.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108, page 198:

     The Captain, with a half-guilty secret to confess, and with the prospect of a painful and stormy interview before him, entered Mr. Osborne's offices with a most dismal countenance and abashed gait, and, passing through the outer room where Mr. Chopper presided, was greeted by that functionary from his desk with a waggish air which farther discomfited him.

   • 1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “The Concert”, in Villette. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], OCLC 81622575, page 111:

     She is a pretty, silly girl: but are you apprehensive that her titter will discomfit the old lady?

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698, pages 69–70:

     Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.

   • 1915, Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in A Far Country, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, OCLC 490525712, section 1, page 46:

     After discomfiting her tormentors or wounding and scattering them, she would return to my side. …

2. (rare) To defeat the plans or hopes of; to frustrate; disconcert.

   Synonyms: foil, thwart

   • 1886, Andrew Lang, chapter 10, in The Mark Of Cain:

     In these disguises, Maitland argued, he would certainly avoid recognition, and so discomfit any mischief planned by the enemies of Margaret.

3. (archaic) To defeat completely; to rout.

   Synonyms: overthrow, vanquish

   • 1585, John Hooker, “The Historie of Scotland, […]”, in The Second Volume of the Chronicles: […], London: […] Iohn Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, published January 1587, OCLC 810972465, page 46, column 1:

     Claudius therefore leauing this Ile, paſſed into Pomonia the chiefeſt of all the Orkenies, where diſcomfiting ſuch as appeared abroad to make reſiſtance, he beſieged the king of thoſe Iles named Ganus, within a caſtell where he was withdrawen, [...]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Exodus 17:13, column 1:

     And Joſhua diſcomfited Amalek, and his people, with the edge of the ſword.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 31:

     And his proud foes discomfit in victorious field.

Usage notes

While the word is widely used to mean “to embarrass, to disconcert”, prescriptive usage considers this a mistake (confusion with discomfort), and restricts discomfit to meaning “to defeat”.[2] However, Merriam–Webster notes that “[...] the sense "to discomfort or disconcert" has become thoroughly established and is the most prevalent meaning of the word.”[3]

Translations

to embarrass greatly

Bulgarian: обърквам (bg) (obǎrkvam), смущавам (bg) (smuštavam) Czech: vyvést z rovnováhy pf, uvést do rozpaků pf French: déconfire (fr) German: Unbehagen bereiten, aus der Fassung bringen, beunruhigen (de) Spanish: desconcertar (es), incomodar (es) Ukrainian: бентежити (uk) (bentežyty), розладнувати (rozladnuvaty)

See also

• discomfort

Adjective

discomfit (comparative more discomfit, superlative most discomfit)

1. (obsolete) Discomfited; overthrown.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for discomfit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “discomfit”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. “Discomfit zone”, January 4, 2008, Grammarphobia
3. “discomfit”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Further reading

• “discomfit”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.