désappointer

désappointer¹ to dismiss, to disappoint

Etymology tree of désappointer¹

inherited borrowed derived

French appointer

French désappointer

Pronunciation

• /de.za.pwɛ̃.te/^[1]

Forms

désappointer^[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to dismiss, to disappoint” is formed from French dés- + appointer¹ (“to appoint to an office”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]}

Its modern sense “to disappoint” grew out of the French verb, but owes its spread to English: disappoint had been borrowed from the Middle French verb in the 15th century and developed the figurative sense there.^[6][7] The TLFi and the Grand Robert see a French extension of sense, recorded from 1611 and revived in the 18th century after the English verb;^[2][3] for Rey the sense took hold through the participle désappointé, borrowed in 1761 from English disappointed;^[6] the Petit Robert treats the modern verb as a loan from English, which Wiktionary calls a semantic loan.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1395, as desapointer, in the records of the Grands jours de Troyes, meaning to dismiss someone from an office.^[2][3] In the 15th century Juvénal des Ursins wrote that the chancellor Arnauld de Corbie feut desappoincté and replaced.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to remove from office” was common in the 15th and 16th centuries and survived into the 19th as “to strike a soldier or officer off the rolls”; the Académie recorded it from 1798 to 1878.^[5][2][6] A figurative sense “to deceive someone in their expectation” is found from 1611 in Cotgrave, after an isolated record in Palsgrave in 1530, and up to the middle of the 17th century.^[2][4][8]

After it had gone out of use, Voltaire took it up again in 1761, noting that the English had taken appointé and désappointé from French and that French no longer had a word for a man left waiting at a missed meeting.^[2] The participle désappointé was criticized in the early 19th century but spread, and the Académie admitted the modern sense in 1835;^[6][3] the verb is now used mostly in the passive.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1395 – Desapointer “to dismiss” in the Grands jours de Troyes.^[2][3]
• 1413 – Juvénal des Ursins uses desappoincté of a dismissed chancellor.^[5]
• 1530 – An isolated record in Palsgrave of the sense “to disappoint”.^[4][8]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the sense “to deceive someone's expectation”.^[2][3]
• 1655 – Last record of this sense before its eclipse.^[2]
• 1761 – Voltaire revives désappointé after English.^[2][6]
• 1783 – The noun désappointement is recorded in the modern sense.^[6]
• 1835 – The Académie records the modern sense.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To disappoint someone, to deceive their hopes or expectations, especially in the passive: Elle a été désappointée par sa réponse.^[8][2][9]
2. (obsolete) To dismiss someone from an office, to strike a soldier or officer off the rolls.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• désappointement
• désappointé
• désappointant

désappointer² to unpin cloth

Etymology tree of désappointer²

inherited borrowed derived

French appointer

French désappointer

Pronunciation

• /de.za.pwɛ̃.te/^[1]

Forms

désappointer^[1]

Etymology

The technical verb meaning “to blunt a point” and “to unpin cloth” is formed from French dés- + appointer² (“to sharpen to a point, to stitch ends together”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the Académie's dictionary of 1798, as a commercial term: to cut the stitches of thread or string that hold the folds of a piece of cloth in place.^[10][3][5]

Timeline

• 1798 – The Académie records the commercial sense.^[10][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (technical) To blunt the point of a needle or similar object.^[3]
2. (commerce) To cut the stitches of thread or string that hold the folds of a piece of fabric in place.^[3][5][10]