disqualify

Etymology

It is formed from English dis- + qualify.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares modern French déqualifier.^[2] Qualify is from Middle French qualifier and Medieval Latin qualificō (“to invest with a quality”),^[2][3] built on Latin quālis (“of what sort?”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To deprive of the qualifications needed for some purpose, to make unfit: 1723, in a letter of J. Arbuthnot printed among Swift's letters.^[2][6] Other dictionaries date the word earlier: Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1712,^[4] Etymonline to 1718, implied in disqualified,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1710–20.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "make unfit" came first, and within a decade the word had its legal sense of depriving someone of a capacity or right, recorded in 1732 in Swift's pamphlet on the Sacramental Test.^[2][6] Johnson (1755) separated the two, "to make unfit" and "to deprive a right or claim by some positive restriction", and quoted Swift for both.^[8] From 1753, in Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison, it could also be reflexive or intransitive, of people who disclaim their own qualifications.^[2][6] The current use for barring a competitor for breaking the rules, or a motorist from driving, belongs to the same legal line.^[5][9]

Timeline

• 1723 – to make unfit or unqualified.^[2][6]
• 1732 – to deprive of a legal capacity or right.^[2][6]
• 1753 – reflexive and intransitive, to disclaim one's own qualifications.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone or something unfit or unqualified for a purpose: A knee injury disqualified her from the army.^[9][4][2]
2. To make someone ineligible, as for an examination or a post: His conviction disqualified him from holding office.^[9][4]
3. To bar a player or team from a contest, especially for breaking the rules.^[9][5]
4. To deprive someone of a right, power or privilege, as of the right to drive: She was disqualified from driving for a year.^[9][4][5]
5. To represent oneself as unqualified; to disparage one's own qualifications.^[2]

Word family

• disqualifiable
• undisqualified
• nondisqualifying

Related words

• disqualification
• qualify
• quality

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
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 d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins