What is the difference between scorn and disdain?

Disdain is a synonym of scorn.

In transitive terms the difference between scorn and disdain

is that scorn is to refuse to do something, as beneath oneself while disdain is to regard (someone or something) with strong contempt.

In uncountable terms the difference between scorn and disdain

is that scorn is contempt or disdain while disdain is a feeling of contempt or scorn.

scorn

English

Verb

(en verb)

To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.

* C. J. Smith

We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful.

To scoff, express contempt.

To reject, turn down

He scorned her romantic advances.

To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.

She scorned to show weakness.

Synonyms

* See also

Noun

(uncountable) Contempt or disdain.

(countable) A display of disdain; a slight.

* Dryden

Every sullen frown and bitter scorn / But fanned the fuel that too fast did burn.

(countable) An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.

* Bible, Psalms xliv. 13

Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.

Usage notes

* Scorn'' is often used in the phrases ''pour scorn on'' and ''heap scorn on .

Quotations

* circa 1605': The cry is still 'They come': our castle's strength / Will laugh a siege to '''scorn — '' * 1967', Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined '''scorn — John Berryman, ''Berryman's Sonnets . New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Synonyms

* See also

Derived terms

* scornful

Anagrams

disdain

English

Noun

(-)

(uncountable) A feeling of contempt or scorn.

The cat viewed the cheap supermarket catfood with disdain and stalked away.

* William Shakespeare, Much ado about Nothing :

Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes.

(obsolete) That which is worthy to be disdained or regarded with contempt and aversion.

* Spenser

Most loathsome, filthy, foul, and full of vile disdain .

(obsolete) The state of being despised; shame.

(Shakespeare)

Synonyms

* condescension, contempt, scorn * See also

Derived terms

* disdainful

Verb

(en verb)

To regard (someone or something) with strong contempt.

* Bible, 1 Sam. xvii. 42

When the Philistine saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth.

* 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 citation

, 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:

When the chefe prestes and scribes sawe, the marveylles that he dyd [...], they desdayned , and sayde unto hym: hearest thou what these saye?

Synonyms

* contemn * See also