Etymologically
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disappoint

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪsəˈpɔɪnt/[1]
  • US: /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnt/[1]

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

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