disarm

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English desarmen,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman disarmer, also desarmer,^[4] and Old French desarmer,^[5][6][7][8] now désarmer.^[9][2] The French verb is formed from des-, the reverse of, and armer (“to arm”),^[6][7][5] from Latin armō (“to arm”), from arma (“weapons”).^[7] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *ar- (“to fit together”).^[7] In Old French the verb meant to take off one's armour from about 1100,^[4] and the Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from 1155, already meant to remove arms or armour and to lay down one's arms.^[10] Merriam-Webster gives Middle French desarmer as the immediate source.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To deprive something of the power to hurt, a figurative sense, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae, about 1380.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

English took the figurative sense first; the literal senses, to take weapons away from someone and to take off one's armour or lay down one's weapons, follow in the early 15th century, in Lydgate.^[6][4] In fencing it meant to force the weapon from an opponent's hand from 1530;^[4] a person could be disarmed by charm or kindness from 1553.^[4] A city or ship was disarmed when its defences were removed, from 1562,^[4] and a country when it reduced its armed forces, from 1741;^[4] this political sense lies behind disarmament, recorded from 1795 in letters of Burke.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the verb only as "to spoil or divest of arms".^[11] The noun disarm, an act of disarming an opponent in fencing, is recorded from about 1700.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – to deprive something of the power to harm, in Chaucer's Boece.^[4][5]
• c. 1425 – to take weapons away from a person, in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[4][6]
• before 1450 – to take off a person's armour, in Lydgate's Siege of Thebes.^[4]
• 1530 – in fencing, to force the weapon from an opponent's hand.^[4]
• 1553 – to win over a person or allay their hostility.^[4]
• 1562 – to strip a city or ship of its weapons and defences.^[4]
• 1598 – intransitive, to give up one's weapons.^[4]
• c. 1700 – noun, an act of disarming an opponent in fencing.^[4]
• 1741 – intransitive, of a country, to reduce or give up its armed forces.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take weapons away from someone: The guards disarmed the intruder at the gate.^[12][3][4]
2. To remove the military forces or defences of a country, city or ship.^[12][3][4]
3. Of a country, to reduce or give up its armed forces or weapons.^[12][4]
4. To make a bomb or mine harmless by removing its fuse or trigger.^[12][3]
5. To win the trust or goodwill of someone, overcoming their hostility or suspicion.^[12][3][4]
6. To lay down one's weapons.^[12][4]
7. In fencing, to force the weapon from an opponent's hand.^[4][9]
8. (archaic) To take off a person's armour.^[4][9]

Noun

1. In fencing, an act that forces the weapon from an opponent's hand.^[4][9]

Word family

• disarmer
• disarmament
• undisarmed

Related words

• arm
• army
• armament
• disarming

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins