demean

demean¹ to conduct or behave oneself

Etymology

The word for conducting oneself is inherited from Middle English demeinen, also demenen,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French demener (“to lead, exercise, treat; reflexively, to conduct oneself”),^{[6][4][7][5][8]} and Anglo-Norman demener, recorded from 1113–19.^[9][10][11] The Middle English Dictionary derives the forms in demein- from the stressed stem of the verb,^[2] and the OED thinks the same of the mainly Scots demaine and demane.^[6] The verb is formed from de- (“completely”) and mener (“to lead, drive”),^[7][4][3] from Late Latin minō (“to drive (animals)”),^[7][4][3][5] originally the same as minor (“to threaten”),^[6][8][5] from minae (“threats”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *men-.^[4] Hoad sets up Vulgar Latin *dēmināre as the Romance form.^[8] The OED compares Old Occitan demenar and Italian dimenare.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To handle or manage tools, instruments and weapons: about 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[6][7] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1250–1300,^[11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

English took over the wide range of the French verb, which in Anglo-Norman could mean to lead, to spend one's life, or to show one's feelings.^[9][6] All the transitive senses have died: managing a business or a tool, ruling a person or country, leading one's days, expressing sorrow or joy, and dealing out goods.^[6] The reflexive "to behave oneself" is the only one left,^[6] and Barnhart sees it as growing out of the older senses of conducting and managing;^[7] he dates it before 1420, against the OED's about 1320.^[7][6] Weekley notes that the verb was very common in Old French and Middle English and is now only reflexive.^[12] Johnson (1755) gives "to behave; to carry one's self" as its first sense.^[13] The meaning "to treat" narrowed in Scottish writers to "to treat badly",^[6] and Wright records it in Scots dialect, as in being demaynt with weet, drenched with rain.^[14] A noun demean, bearing or behaviour, was used from about 1450 to 1739,^[6][15] and Spenser's "sorrowful demean" is Johnson's example.^[13] Barnhart dates the derivative demeanor, first demenure, to probably before 1472.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to handle or manage tools, weapons (obsolete by 1384).^[6][7]
• c. 1315 – to conduct or carry on business; to manage (obsolete by 1644).^[6]
• c. 1320 – reflexive, to behave or conduct oneself.^[6]
• 1393 – to deal with or treat a person in a certain way (obsolete by 1685).^[6]
• before 1400 – to rule, direct or control a person or country (obsolete by 1535).^[6]
• c. 1400 – to express sorrow, joy or mirth (obsolete by 1607).^[6]
• c. 1450 – noun, bearing, behaviour (obsolete by 1739).^[6][15]
• 1483 – to ill-treat, chiefly in Scottish writers.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To behave or conduct oneself in a particular way: The envoys demeaned themselves with great courtesy.^[3][10][6]
2. (dialectal) To maltreat.^[3][14]
3. (obsolete, c. 1315–1644) To carry on or manage; to deal with.^[6][3][15]

Noun

1. (obsolete, c. 1450–1739) Bearing, behavior, demeanor.^{[6][15][3][13]}

Word family

• demeanor
• misdemean
• misdemeanor

demean² to lower in dignity

Etymology tree of demean²

inherited borrowed derived

English mean

English demean

From the same root · demean²

English meaning ← mean

Etymology

The word for lowering in dignity is formed from English de- + mean (“low in quality or social position”),^{[6][7][3][15][16][5]} probably on the model of debase.^{[6][7][17][18][15][16]} The OED compares bemean.^[6] It has been suggested that it began as a misunderstanding of demean¹ in certain constructions:^[6] Etymonline says that verb likely influenced it and might be its ultimate source,^[17] Barnhart allows occasional confusion with it,^[7] and Weekley thought it probably the same verb, by association with the adjective.^[12] Partridge hesitantly prefers the prefix with intensive force and mean in the sense "common, base".^[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lower in condition, status, reputation or character: 1601, in R. Abbot.^[6][7][3] Etymonline dates it to about 1600,^[17] and Dictionary.com to 1595–1605.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The verb is rare before 1700, and the OED calls both of its 17th-century quotations somewhat doubtful.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "to lessen; to debase; to undervalue" as a second sense of the one verb, quoting The Comedy of Errors.^[13][6] From 1659 it was used especially reflexively, of humbling oneself, and by 1764, in Foote, of stooping to what is beneath one.^[6] It was much criticised by late 19th-century purists:^[17] Fitzedward Hall wrote a monograph on it in The Nation in 1891,^[6] and the Century Dictionary (1897, as Etymonline dates it) reports that it was avoided by scrupulous writers.^[17] Weekley still placed the reflexive use in vulgar speech in 1921.^[12] Collins now enters it first, ahead of the verb for behaving.^[18]

Timeline

• 1601 – transitive, to lower in condition, status, reputation or character.^[6][7][3]
• 1659 – reflexive, to lower or humble oneself.^[6]
• 1764 – to stoop to doing what is beneath one.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lower in status, reputation or character; to degrade or debase: Such tasks demean a trained nurse.^[18][3][6]
2. To lower or humble oneself, especially by doing something beneath one: She refused to demean herself by begging for a raise.^[18][6][15]

Word family

• demeaning
• demeaningly