Demean vs Disdain - What's the difference?
demean | disdain |
To debase; to lower; to degrade.
* Thackeray
To humble, humble oneself; to humiliate.
To mortify.
To manage; to conduct; to treat.
* Milton
To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.
* Shakespeare
* Clarendon
(archaic) Management; treatment.
* Spenser
(archaic) Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , V.5:
*:‘When thou hast all this doen, then bring me newes / Of his demeane […].’
* West
(uncountable) A feeling of contempt or scorn.
* William Shakespeare, Much ado about Nothing :
(obsolete) That which is worthy to be disdained or regarded with contempt and aversion.
* Spenser
(obsolete) The state of being despised; shame.
To regard (someone or something) with strong contempt.
* Bible, 1 Sam. xvii. 42
* The Qur'an, trans. , verse 170
*:The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, is but the apostle of God and His Word, […] The Messiah doth surely not disdain' to be a servant of God, nor do the angels who are nigh to Him ; and whosoever '''disdains''' His service and is too proud, He will gather them altogether to Himself. But as for those who believe and do what is right, He will pay their hire and will give increase to them of His grace. But as for those who ' disdain and are too proud, He will punish them with a grievous woe, and they shall not find for them other than God a patron or a help.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times
, passage=The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.}}
(obsolete) To be indignant or offended.
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Matthew XXI:
As verbs the difference between demean and disdain
is that demean is to debase; to lower; to degrade while disdain is to regard (someone or something) with strong contempt.As nouns the difference between demean and disdain
is that demean is management; treatment while disdain is a feeling of contempt or scorn.demean
English
Etymology 1
(1595) From . Compare English (m).Verb
(en verb)- Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.
Synonyms
* debase * lower * degradeEtymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.
- They have demeaned themselves / Like men born to renown by life or death.
- They answered that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.
Noun
- vile demean and usage bad
- with grave demean and solemn vanity
Etymology 3
Var. of demesne.Anagrams
* * *disdain
English
Noun
(-)- The cat viewed the cheap supermarket catfood with disdain and stalked away.
- Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes.
- Most loathsome, filthy, foul, and full of vile disdain .
- (Shakespeare)
Synonyms
* condescension, contempt, scorn * See alsoDerived terms
* disdainfulVerb
(en verb)- When the Philistine saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth.
citation
- When the chefe prestes and scribes sawe, the marveylles that he dyd [...], they desdayned , and sayde unto hym: hearest thou what these saye?