disappoint

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English disappointen,^[2] borrowed from Middle French desappointer (“to remove from an appointed office, to depose”) (now French désappointer),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} also given as desapointier,^[8][9] from des- and appointer (“to arrange, settle”), the source of appoint.^{[3][10][8][9]} The French verb is recorded from 1395, and later also meant to strip someone of clothes.^[3] Its base goes back to Old French apointier (“to make ready, arrange”), from the phrase à point (“to the point”).^[2] Etymonline allows that the English verb may instead have been formed from dis- and appoint.^[2] The OED notes that the senses of thwarting an aim or expectation developed within English, and were borrowed back into French in the 17th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To remove a person from an appointed office: 1434, in the proceedings of the Privy Council.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Ayto calls the first meaning, "to deprive of an appointment", a line that has died out, and quotes a translation of 1586 in which a monarch has power "to appoint or to disappoint the greatest officers".^[11] Alongside it the word meant to fail to keep an appointment, which he and Etymonline take to be the ancestor of the modern sense;^[11][2] the OED records breaking or missing an appointment from 1530 to 1881.^[3] Weekley sums it up as "to break an arrangement".^[12] The sense of frustrating a person in a hope or aim is dated to 1494 by Barnhart^[4] and to before 1513, in Fabyan's chronicle, by the OED,^[3] and the thwarting of a plan or hope to 1545 by the OED^[3] and to the 1570s by Etymonline.^[2] The OED adds that the development was influenced by appoint.^[3] Other senses died out: to deprive someone of something expected (1529–1873) and to undo or ruin (1563–1823).^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as to defeat of expectation, to balk.^[13] The intransitive use, to cause disappointment, dates from 1623,^[3] and disappointment from 1614.^[4]

Timeline

• 1434 – to remove from an appointed office.^[3][4]
• 1494 – to frustrate a person's expectation (Barnhart).^[4]
• before 1513 – to thwart a person in an aim or hope (OED).^[3]
• 1529 – to deprive of something expected (obsolete by 1873).^[3]
• 1530 – to break or miss an appointment (obsolete by 1881).^[3]
• 1545 – to thwart a plan, hope or intention.^[3]
• 1563 – to undo, ruin (obsolete by 1823).^[3]
• 1614 – disappointment.^[4]
• 1623 – intransitive, to cause disappointment.^[3]
• 1642 – noun disappoint, a disappointment.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fail to meet someone's hopes or expectations; to let down: The sequel disappointed most of the critics.^[14][8][3]
2. To prevent a plan or intention from being carried out; to thwart or frustrate.^[14][8][3]
3. Without an object, to cause disappointment: The new restaurant did not disappoint.^[8][3]
4. (archaic) To remove from office.^[8][3][6]
5. (obsolete, 1563–1823) To undo, nullify or ruin.^[8][3]

Word family

• disappointer

Related words

• appoint
• appointment
• point
• disappointment

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins