condescend

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English condescenden, borrowed from Old French condescendre,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Late Latin condēscendō (“to stoop, let oneself down”),^[4][3][5][8] which Etymonline and the Middle English Dictionary also take as a direct source.^[9][2] The Latin verb is formed from com- and dēscendō (“to climb down, descend”),^[3][9][10] itself from dē- (“down”) and scandō (“to climb”), from Proto-Indo-European *skand- (“to jump”).^[9] The OED finds the Latin verb in Cassiodorus.^[4] In the first English record the French infinitive was taken over whole, as condecendre.^[4][2] Weekley compares German sich herablassen, literally to let oneself down.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To yield or defer, as a reflexive verb: 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, the OED's and Barnhart's first example, and the Middle English Dictionary's for making gracious allowance.^[4][5][2] The sense of agreeing was already present in Anglo-Norman, recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense is not the oldest: agreement and deference came first.^[4][11] In medieval Latin the verb meant to be compliant,^[4][13] and in French to come down from one's rights and yield.^[4] Middle English used it of God, a king or a master who deigned to do something or made gracious allowance for human frailty, and also for plain consent and agreement.^[2][9] Chaucer has it for consenting to a request, and for coming down to particulars.^[14] It was generally a positive word in Middle English.^[9] The meaning "to stoop voluntarily from one's dignity" is first recorded about 1435, in Lydgate.^[4][5][9] The 1611 King James Bible at Romans xii. 16 used it for putting aside one's rank,^[4][11] with no idea yet of assumed superiority.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined it as to "sink willingly to equal terms with inferiours".^[15] The modern negative sense comes from a mere show or assumed air of such kindness, a change like that of patronize,^[9] and the Shorter Oxford notes that the verb is now often ironic.^[6] The older senses died out: "to go down" by 1680, "to agree to a thing" by 1745, and "to give way" by 1794.^[4][16] In Scots it was a legal term, to state one's case, hence condescendence, a statement of one's case.^[17]

Timeline

• 1340 – reflexive, to yield or defer.^[4][5][2]
• 1429 – intransitive, to give way deferentially (obsolete after 1794).^[4][16]
• c. 1435 – to stoop graciously to do something, in Lydgate.^[4][5][2]
• 1477 – to consent or agree to something (obsolete after 1745), in Caxton.^[4][16]
• c. 1485 – literally, to go down (obsolete after 1680).^[4]
• 1611 – to set aside superiority towards inferiors, later to patronize; in the King James Bible.^[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To behave towards others in a way that shows one feels superior; to patronize: The senior partner condescended to the new clerks.^{[3][18][19][10]}
2. To do something one regards as below one's dignity; to stoop or deign: She finally condescended to reply to our letter.^{[3][18][19][10]}
3. To set aside the privileges of rank and treat inferiors as equals.^[4][15][6]
4. (obsolete, 1477–1745) To consent or agree to something.^[4][6][2]
5. (obsolete, 1429–1794) To yield or give way deferentially.^[4][6]
6. (obsolete, 1485–1680) To come or go down; to descend.^[4][10][6]

Word family

• condescender
• condescending
• uncondescending

Related words

• condescendence
• condescension
• descend
• scale

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press