scorn means contempt or disdain. It carries an Arena rating of 1504, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, scorn ranks #81 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #867 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #943 of 17,135 for Most Malleable Words, #3,307 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
scorn is pronounced /skɔːn/.
Why “scorn” is a great word
A feeling or expression of contempt or profound disrespect, or the act of treating with such contempt. From Middle English scornen, from Old French escharnir, from Vulgar Latin *escarnire, likely from Proto-West Germanic *skarnijan, possibly from Proto-Germanic *skeraną ("to cut") or *skarną ("dung, filth"). The noun comes from Old French escarn. Unlike contempt, a cold, settled judgment, or disdain, a haughty dismissal from a height, scorn is an active, heated expulsion. It is the flash in the eyes across a crowded room, the sharp, derisive laugh that cuts off a foolish remark, and the deliberate spitting on the ground before turning one's back—a brutal, physical refusal that acknowledges the target only to hurl it away, leaving the silent understanding that some things are deemed unworthy of even quiet consideration.
Etymology
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”).
noun
- Contempt or disdain.e.g.“Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn” — 1967, John Berryman, Berryman’s Sonnets, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
- A display of disdain; a slight.
- An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.e.g.“Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.” — 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 44:13:
verb
- To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
- To reject, turn down with disdain.e.g.“He scorned her romantic advances.”
- To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.e.g.“She scorned to show weakness.”
- To scoff, to express contempt.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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