Etymologically
Log in Sign up

chagrin

Etymology and origin of the English word chagrin

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈʃaɡ.ɹɪn/, /ʃəˈɡɹɪn/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French chagrin (“melancholy; vexation”),[2][3][4][5] of uncertain origin.[3][4][6] It is perhaps related to Old Northern French chagreiner (“to become gloomy”),[4][3] or to dialectal chagraigner “to distress”,[2][4] and ultimately to Old French graim “sorrowful”, of Germanic origin.[2][4] The OED and other sources instead identify it with French chagrin “rough skin”, which became English shagreen,[4] but the American Heritage Dictionary treats the two as separate words.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Worry, anxiety or melancholy.[4][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of fretting care is now obsolete;[7] from about 1716 the word narrowed to the vexation or mortification caused by disappointment or failure.[4][7][3] Around 1700 it was often called an affected, frenchified term.[7]

Timeline

  • 1656 – worry, melancholy;[7][3] Etymonline gives the 1650s.[4]
  • 1665 – chagrined.[3]
  • 1666 – adjective, grieved or troubled.[7]
  • 1678 – rough-surfaced leather, now spelled shagreen.[7]
  • circa 1681 – the first date in Merriam-Webster.[5]
  • 1716–18 – vexation arising from disappointment.[7][3]
  • 1727 – verb.[3][7]
  • 1733 – verb, to vex or mortify.[7][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Distress of mind caused by humiliation, disappointment or failure.

Verb

  1. To vex or embarrass by disappointment or humiliation.

Related words

  • shagreen

Usage notes

The verb is now used mainly in the passive (chagrined), and dictionaries do not enter the double-n spellings chagrinned and chagrinning.[1]

References

  1. [1] [2] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. [1] [2] [3] [4] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. [1] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Chagrin.” Etymologically, 7 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/chagrin. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on .