scorn
pronunciation
How to pronounce scorn in British English:
UK [skɔːn]
How to pronounce scorn in American English:
US [skɔːrn]
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- Noun:
- lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
- open disrespect for a person or thing
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- Verb:
- look down on with disdain
- reject with contempt
Word Origin
- scorn
- scorn: [12] Scorn reached English via Old French, but it is ultimately of Germanic origin. Its immediate source was Old French escharnir, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *escarnīre. This had been borrowed from a prehistoric Germanic *skarnjan ‘mock, deride, make fun of’. A product of the same base was Middle High German scherz ‘joke, jest’, which was borrowed into Italian as scherzo and subsequently made its way into English as the musical term scherzo ‘lively passage’ [19].=> scherzo
- scorn (n.)
- c. 1200, a shortening of Old French escarn "mockery, derision, contempt," a common Romanic word (Spanish escarnio, Italian scherno) of Germanic origin, from Proto-Germanic *skarnjan "mock, deride" (cognates: Old High German skern "mockery, jest, sport," Middle High German scherzen "to jump with joy"). Probably influenced by Old French escorne "affront, disgrace," which is a back-formation from escorner, literally "to break off (someone's) horns," from Vulgar Latin *excornare (source of Italian scornare "treat with contempt"), from Latin ex- "without" (see ex-) + cornu "horn" (see horn (n.)).
- scorn (v.)
- c. 1200, from Anglo-French, Old North French escarnir (Old French escharnir), from the source of scorn (n.). Cognate with Old High German skernon, Middle Dutch schernen. Related: Scorned; scorning. Forms in Romanic languages influenced by confusion with Old French escorner "deprive of horns," hence "deprive of honor or ornament, disgrace."
Synonym
at make boo hoot gibe ridicule poke flout fun mock of jeer twit hiss taunt laugh scoff deride sneer scout
belittle lip revile with one's spit despise in reject down contemn at look misprize contempt reproach loathe detest regard hold upon hate disdain curl spurn
Example
- 1. Hitherto , they have met with socialist scorn .
- 2. Here , there are no bankers of failed institutions to scorn .
- 3. Even fairly conservative blogs were full of scorn on wednesday for pyongyang 's latest moves .
- 4. Second , he seemed to scorn social mobility .
- 5. Rio and bhp may scorn this putative benchmark .