degrade

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English degraden, also disgraden,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French degrader (“to deprive of rank or office”),^{[5][6][7][4][8][9]} also desgrader,^[5][10] and partly from Ecclesiastical Latin dēgradō (“to reduce in rank”),^[2][7][11] formed from dē- (“down, from”) and gradus (“step, degree, rank”),^{[4][7][5][12]} from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[4][6] Etymonline instead analyses the French verb as des- (“down”) and Latin gradior (“to walk, go, step”).^[6] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from about 1171–74, meaning to deprive someone of rank or office.^[13] The Latin verb also gave Spanish degradar and Italian degradare.^[5] It is related to grade and degree.^[12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To reduce from a higher to a lower rank, or to put someone down from a position of honour: about 1325, in the Song of Yesterday.^[5] Barnhart's first record is before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[7] and Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to demote or depose someone, to bring a person down, and in particular to take away a cleric's orders, reducing him to a layman.^[2][5] The OED records the formal deposition of a knight or officer as a punishment from 1508.^[5] From before 1500 it also meant to bring into dishonour or contempt.^[5] From 1652 it also meant to lower in character or quality, to debase.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) gave the senses of depriving someone of an office or title, and of lessening the value of something.^[15] The 19th century added scientific senses: of wearing down rocks (1812), of a species reduced to a simpler type (1862, in Darwin) and of energy (1876), followed by the breaking down of molecules (1935).^[5] The intransitive sense "to degenerate" is recorded from 1850, in Tennyson.^[5][6] At Cambridge University degrade was used from 1829 of postponing the honours examination for a year.^[5] The noun degrade, timber with defects, appeared in 1922.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – to reduce to a lower rank, to depose.^[5]
• 1395 – to deprive a cleric of orders.^[5]
• before 1500 – to bring into dishonour or contempt.^[5]
• 1508 – to strip someone formally of rank as a punishment.^[5]
• 1652 – to lower in character or quality, to debase.^[5][6]
• 1812 – in geology, to wear down rocks by erosion.^[5]
• 1850 – intransitive, to degenerate.^[5][6]
• 1862 – in biology, to reduce to a simpler type.^[5]
• 1922 – noun, timber with defects.^[5]
• 1935 – in chemistry, to break down a molecule into simpler ones.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To treat someone with disrespect or make them lose dignity or self-respect; to debase: The prisoners complained that the searches were meant to degrade them.^[16][10][5]
2. To lower someone in rank or status; to demote, especially formally as a punishment.^[16][10][5]
3. To make something worse in quality, strength or effectiveness: Heat slowly degrades the battery.^[16][5]
4. (geology) To wear down a land surface or river bed by erosion.^[16][5]
5. (chemistry) To break down or be broken down into simpler molecules.^[16][5]
6. To degenerate; to fall to a lower type or condition.^[5][12]

Noun

1. Timber or a log that has defects that lower its grade; also, such a lowering of grade.^[10][5][11]

Word family

• degrader
• degradingly
• biodegrade
• degradable
• degradation

Related words

• grade
• degree
• gradual
• aggrade
• downgrade
• progress
• digress

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ 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 d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins