disagreement

Etymology

Etymonline and Merriam-Webster form it from English disagree + -ment;^[2][3] the Shorter Oxford derives it from the verb after agreement.^[4] The OED, revised in 2017, takes it as dis- plus agreement, after the verb and, in its first sense, after Anglo-Norman desagrément (“refusal to assent”),^[5] which the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records from 1389–90.^[6] Dictionary.com derives it from the Anglo-French and Middle French word.^[7] The OED compares French désagrément (“annoyance”), recorded from before 1642.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The refusal to agree or to give one's assent: 1495, in the Rolls of Parliament;^[5] Etymonline also dates this sense to the late 15th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, refusing assent, lasted until the 19th century (1495–1886).^[5] The modern sense of a difference of opinion is recorded from 1501, in a letter of Henry VII,^[5] and quarrel or dissension from 1548;^[5] Etymonline dates these to the 1570s and 1580s, and suggests that the later senses were formed anew from dis- and agreement.^[2] From 1551 the word also meant a lack of correspondence or consistency between things, later used in grammar for a failure of agreement in number, gender or case.^[5] An obsolete sense was the unsuitability of a food or climate to a person's constitution (1580–1898).^[5][2] Johnson (1755) listed "difference; dissimilitude" before "difference of opinion".^[8]

Timeline

• 1495 – refusal to assent (obsolete by 1886).^[5]
• 1501 – difference of opinion.^[5]
• 1548 – discord, a quarrel.^[5]
• 1551 – lack of correspondence, discrepancy.^[5]
• 1580 – unsuitability of food or climate (obsolete by 1898).^[5]
• 1778 – an unpleasantness (rare, obsolete).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Failure or refusal to agree; a difference of opinion: There was some disagreement about the budget.^[9][3][5]
2. An argument or quarrel.^[9][5]
3. A lack of correspondence or consistency; a discrepancy: a disagreement between the two accounts.^[9][3][5]
4. In grammar, a failure of words to agree in number, gender or case.^[5]
5. (obsolete, 1580–1898) Unsuitability of a food or climate to a person's constitution.^[5][4]

Word family

• nondisagreement
• predisagreement

Related words

• agree
• disagreeable

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins