Etymologically
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disarm

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪsˈɑː(ɹ)m/[1]
  • US: /dɪsˈɑɹm/[1]

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

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