scorn

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scorn

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Verb from Middle English scornen, schornen, alteration of Old French escharnir, from Vulgar Latin *escarnire, from Proto-West Germanic *skarnijan, possibly from Proto-Germanic *skeraną (“to shear”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”)), or possibly related to *skarną (“dung, filth”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱerd-, *(s)ḱer- (“dung, manure, filth”)). Noun from Old French escarn (cognate with Portuguese escárnio, Spanish escarnio and Italian scherno). Cognate with Middle High German schern (“joke, mockery, scorn”), Old English sċierniċġe (“female entertainer, juggler, actress”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skɔːn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /skɔɹn/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)n

scorn (third-person singular simple present scorns, present participle scorning, simple past and past participle scorned)

1. (transitive) To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 150:

     The Cry is ſtill, they come: our Caſtles ſtrength / Will laugh a Siedge to ſcorne

   • 1871, C. J. Smith, Synonyms Discriminated:

     We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful.

2. (transitive) To reject, turn down.

   He scorned her romantic advances.

   • 1697, Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, Act III, page 39:

     Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.

3. (transitive) To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.

   She scorned to show weakness.

4. (intransitive) To scoff, to express contempt.
   • 1578–1579, Ed Sp, “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention‎, London: Imprinted for William Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, →OCLC:

     For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.

• This is a catenative verb which takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (to feel contempt): see also Thesaurus:despise
• (to scoff): deride, mock, ridicule, scoff, sneer

scorn (countable and uncountable, plural scorns)

1. (uncountable) Contempt or disdain.
   • 1967, John Berryman, Berryman’s Sonnets, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux:

     Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn

2. (countable) A display of disdain; a slight.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 100, column 1:

     VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.

   • 1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover:

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

3. (countable) An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Psalms 44:13:

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

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

• See also Thesaurus:contempt

• laugh to scorn
• scornful

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Scorn”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

• Crons, corns

From earlier scarn, scharn, borrowed from Old Northern French escarn and central Old French escharn, from Late Latin *scarnium.

For the vocalism in -o-, see scornen (“to scorn”).

• schoren, schorn, skorn
• scarn, scharn, skarn, skoarn (Early Middle English)
• scoorn, scorne, schorne, sckorn, skorne (Late Middle English)

• IPA^(key): /skɔːrn/, /skɔrn/, /ʃɔːrn/, /ʃɔrn/
• IPA^(key): /skɑːrn/, /ʃɑːrn/ (Early Middle English)

scorn (uncountable)

1. Scorn, contempt; the feeling that something is beneath oneself.
2. Abuse, humiliation, derision; scornful treatment.
3. An insult; a derisory or contemptuous statement, action, or thing.

• scornen
• scornere
• scornful

• English: scorn
• Middle Scots: scorn, scorne
  • Scots: scorn

• “scō̆rn, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

scorn

1. (Late Middle English or Northern) Alternative form of scornen

• scoarn

Inherited from Middle Scots scorn, scorne, from Northern Middle English scorn, scorne (replacing expected *scarne due to the influence of southern scornen), from Old French escarnir, escharnir, from Late Latin *scarnīre, *scernīre, of disputed origin.

• IPA^(key): /skoːrn/

scorn (third-person singular simple present scorns, present participle scornin, simple past scorned, past participle scorned)

1. To scorn or despise; to think of with contempt.
2. To jeer or ridicule; to behave derisively towards:
   1. To mock; to derisively imitiate.
   2. To tease; to playfully or unseriously ridicule.

• scornfu

scorn (uncountable)

1. Scorn, contempt; the feeling that something is beneath oneself.
   • 1983, William Lorimer, transl., The New Testament in Scots, Edinburgh: Canongate, published 2001, →ISBN, →OCLC, I Corinthians 4:10, page 286:

     We ar fuils for our sairin o Christ, an ye ar wysslike members o Christ; we ar sillie, an ye ar strang; ye ar hauden in honour, an we ar hauden in scorn bi the warld.

     We are fools in our help towards Christ, but you are wise believers in Christ; we're feeble, but you're strong; you're held in esteem, but we're viewed with contempt by the world.

2. A snub; a harsh or cold refusal.

• “scorn, n., v.¹”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.