scorn

noun

scorn—a feeling or expression of contempt or disdain for someone or something

/skɔːn/, /skɔɹn/

Origin

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”).

verb

transitiveTo feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
“The Cry is ſtill, they come: our Caſtles ſtrength / Will laugh a Siedge to ſcorne”
“We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful.”
transitiveTo reject, turn down.
“He scorned her romantic advances.”
“Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.”
transitiveTo refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.
“She scorned to show weakness.”
intransitiveTo scoff, to express contempt.
“For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.”

noun

uncountableContempt or disdain.
“Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn”
countableA display of disdain; a slight.
“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 ”
“Every sullen frown and bitter scorn / But fanned the fuel that too fast did burn.”
countableAn object of disdain, contempt, or derision.
“Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.”

Formsscorns(present, singular, third-person) · scorning(participle, present) · scorned(participle, past) · scorned(past) · scorns(plural)

Source: Wiktionary

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