indignation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English indignacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French indignation^[3][4][5] or directly borrowed from Latin indignātiō (“indignation, displeasure”);^[6][5][4][7] the dictionaries are divided over which of the two was the source.^[5][8][9] The Latin noun of action is formed from indignātus, the past participle of indignor (“to regard as unworthy; to be angry or displeased at”),^[6][3][7] from indignus (“unworthy”), made up of in- (“not”) and dignus (“worthy, proper, fitting”).^[6][4] Etymonline traces dignus to Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“to take, accept”).^[6] The French word is recorded from the 12th century,^[5] and the Anglo-Norman indignacion from the first half of that century, meaning indignation and angry annoyance, and also inflammation.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Disdain, contempt: Barnhart finds indignatio probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[4] and Etymonline dates the word to about 1200.^[6] The OED's first record of this sense is in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, about 1374.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant the act of treating a person or thing as unworthy of notice, that is, disdain or contempt, a sense that died out in the 16th century.^[5][8][11] The sense of anger at something unworthy or wrongful appears by about 1350, in a Middle English psalter,^[2][4] and in the Wycliffite Bible of about 1382;^[5][2] it became the only living sense, often of anger on behalf of others.^[5] Chaucer used the word twice, for wrath and for scornful speech.^[12] In medical writing from 1398 to 1668 it also meant the turning of the stomach against unwelcome food.^[5][8] Johnson (1755) defined it as anger mixed with contempt or disgust, quoting King Lear.^[13] In the United States the indignation meeting (1835) was once a common way of expressing public outrage by passing and publishing resolutions.^[6][8]

Timeline

• before 1200 – indignatio, disdain, contempt, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4]
• c. 1350 – anger at something wrongful, in indignacioun.^[2][4]
• c. 1374 – disdain, contemptuous treatment, in Chaucer's Boethius (obsolete by 1530).^[5]
• before 1382 – anger at what is unworthy or unjust, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5][2]
• 1398 – the turning of the stomach against food (obsolete by 1668).^[5]
• before 1513 – treating with indignity (obsolete).^[5]
• 1835 – indignation meeting, a public meeting to protest.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Anger or scorn provoked by something felt to be unfair, unworthy or wrong; righteous anger: The new tax caused widespread indignation among farmers.^{[14][9][5][15]}
2. (obsolete, 1374–1530) Disdain or contempt; contemptuous treatment.^[5][8]
3. (obsolete, 1398–1668) Nausea; the turning of the stomach against food.^[5][8]

Related words

• deign
• dignify
• indign
• indignant
• undignified
• indignity
• dignity

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers