discountenance
/dɪsˈkaʊntənəns/
discountenance means cold treatment; disapprobation. It carries an Arena rating of 1747, earned across 22 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, discountenance ranks #1,414 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,985 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #3,807 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #4,169 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
discountenance is pronounced /dɪsˈkaʊntənəns/.
Why “discountenance” is a great word
To show disapproval of, to discourage, or to disconcert someone, stemming from the English prefix dis- (expressing reversal) and countenance ("facial expression; approval, support"), itself partly modelled on Middle French descontenancer (to discompose, abash). First recorded in English 1570–80. Unlike "disapprove," which is a private judgment, or "disconcert," a mere unsettling, to discountenance is a public, moral act that withdraws the shelter of one's regard. It is the host's averted gaze from a guest who has breached decorum, the deliberate, cooling silence that follows an off-color joke, or the slow, formal folding of hands that turns welcome into audience—a quiet, potent architecture by which society polices its own, making the air itself withdraw its support.
Etymology
From Middle French descontenancer (compare French décontenancer).
noun
- Cold treatment; disapprobation.
verb
- To have an unfavorable opinion of; to deprecate or disapprove of.e.g.“A town meeting was convened to discountenance riot.” — 1855, George Bancroft, chapter XXX, in History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume V, London: Routledge, page 74:
- To abash, embarrass or disconcert.
- To refuse countenance or support to; to discourage.e.g.“These were rejected by Parliament, which discountenanced the amalgamation of competing lines but gave broad approval in theory to end-on amalgamations.” — 1948 January and February, “British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.