denial

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɪˈnaɪ.əl/, /dəˈnaɪ.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from deny and -al,^[2][3] replacing earlier denyance (late 15th century).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A refusal to grant what is asked: 1528.^[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Contradicting a statement, asserting it to be untrue, is from 1576, the 1570s in Etymonline,^[4][2] and refusing to acknowledge a person or thing from 1590.^[4] A defendant's denial of a charge is from 1628.^[4] In some 19th-century uses denial means self-denial.^[2][4] In psychology, the unconscious suppression of painful feelings is first attested in 1914, in A. A. Brill's translation of Freud,^[2] and in denial was popularized in the 1980s.^[2]

Timeline

• 1528 – refusal of a request.^[4]
• 1576 – contradiction.^[4]
• 1590 – refusal to acknowledge.^[4]
• 1914 – psychological denial.^[2]
• 1980s – in denial.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A statement that something is not true; a contradiction.
2. A refusal of a request.
3. A refusal to acknowledge someone or something; disavowal.
4. (psychology) Refusal to accept a painful truth or feeling: in denial.

Word family

• nondenial
• redenial
• self-denial

Related words

• deny
• negate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press