contemptible

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French contemptible (“deserving of contempt”) and directly borrowed from Latin contemptibilis (“deserving of contempt, worthless”),^[2][3][4] formed from contemptus, the past participle of contemnō (“to scorn, despise”), and the suffix -ibilis.^[2][5][6][7] The verb is formed from com-, here perhaps intensive, and temnō (“to slight, scorn”), which is of uncertain origin.^[5] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster call the Latin source Late Latin,^[5][7] while the OED finds the Latin adjective in legal texts from the 2nd century AD, and the French one, as Old French contentible, from the late 13th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Deserving contempt, despicable, and also lowly, humble: both senses are first recorded about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, with the same two senses.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense "lowly, humble" had died out by 1646.^[2] From 1594 the word was also used actively, of a person or an opinion that shows contempt, where contemptuous would now be used.^[2] Trench notes that older writers often gave adjectives in -able and -ible an active sense, and quotes Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, where a man "hath a contemptible spirit".^[8] Johnson (1755) gave "worthy of contempt" as the first sense and "despised, scorned" as the second.^[9] The active sense is now obsolete except in dialect;^[3][7] around 1900 it was still heard in Ulster, Leicestershire and Warwickshire.^[10] The noun, a contemptible person, is recorded from 1654.^[2][3] In 1914 the German Kaiser was said to have ordered his troops to "walk all over General French's contemptible little army";^[11] Cresswell notes that the text seems to have been created by British propaganda, and the veterans of the British Expeditionary Force of 1914 became known as the Old Contemptibles.^[11][2]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – deserving contempt; also lowly, humble (obsolete by 1646).^[2]
• 1594 – showing contempt, contemptuous.^[2]
• 1654 – noun, a contemptible person.^[2]
• 1917 – the Contemptibles, the British regular army sent to France in 1914.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Deserving contempt; despicable or mean: It was a contemptible way to treat a friend.^[12][7][2]
2. (obsolete except in dialect) Showing contempt; contemptuous.^[3][7][10]
3. (obsolete, 1384–1646) Lowly, humble.^[2][5]

Noun

1. A contemptible person; usually in the plural.^[2][3]
2. Old Contemptibles: the veterans of the British Expeditionary Force sent to France in 1914.^[11][2]

Word family

• contemptibility
• contemptibly
• contemptibleness
• uncontemptible

Related words

• contemptuous
• contempt
• contemn

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary: contemptible describes what deserves scorn for its littleness or meanness, and is generally weaker than despicable, which implies great baseness.^[5] Cresswell notes that the adjective remains common, while its root verb contemn is now rare and literary.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b 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)
11. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins