indignant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin indignāns (“being indignant, regarding as unworthy”),^[2][3][4][5] the present participle of indignor (“to regard as unworthy, take offence”),^[2][3][6][7] from indignus (“unworthy”),^[2][4][6] from in- (“not”) and dignus (“worthy”).^[3][8][9] Etymonline traces dignus to Proto-Indo-European *dek-no-, a suffixed form of *dek- (“to take, accept”),^[3] and Ayto to an unrecorded *decnus (“suitable, fitting”), from the verb that gave decent.^[10] The same Latin adjective is the source of dignity, deign, disdain, dignify and condign.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Provoked to anger by something seen as unworthy or unjust: 1590, in Spenser's The Faerie Queene.^[2] Etymonline and Dictionary.com put it in the 1580s.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The noun indignation is older, recorded from the 14th century, at first also for disdain.^[6] From the beginning the adjective meant anger mixed with scorn or contempt, the literal Latin idea of regarding as unworthy surviving only as the unworthy thing that provokes the feeling.^[2][11] Johnson (1755) defined it as inflamed with anger and disdain at once, and quoted Milton's th' indignant waves.^[12] The constructions with at and with are recorded from 1744,^[2] and the word could also describe a look, letter or other expression of the feeling.^[5] A rare noun, an indignant person, appears in 1861.^[2] The derivatives indignance and indignancy have stayed rare,^[11] and indignantly once also meant with indignity.^[11]

Timeline

• 1590 – feeling anger mingled with scorn at something unworthy.^[2][5]
• 1744 – with at or with.^[2]
• 1861 – noun, an indignant person.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Feeling anger at something seen as unfair or unworthy, often with at, about or over: The tenants were indignant at the sudden rent rise.^[8][5][11]
2. Arising from or showing such indignation: She sent the council an indignant email.^[5][13]

Noun

1. (rare) An indignant person.^[2]

Word family

• indignantly
• unindignant

Related words

• indign
• indignation
• indignity
• dignity
• deign
• disdain
• condign
• decent
• dignify

References

1. ^ 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 e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins