discomfit

UK/dɪsˈkʌmfɪt/US/dɪsˈkʌmfɪt/

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: discomfited, discomfiting

To discomfit is to make somebody uneasy and put out. Discomfited by the question, visibly discomfited, discomfit his opponents.

It once meant to defeat utterly in battle and has weakened enormously, largely because it looks like discomfort, which it is unrelated to. The modern sense is embarrassment rather than defeat.

Definitions of discomfit

1verbdiscomfitTo make somebody uneasy and put out.C2
“The reporter's direct questions clearly discomfited the minister.”

discomfit is an unsettling.

Where it comes from

Old French desconfire means to destroy or defeat; the modern weakened sense came by confusion with discomfort.

Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Latin
dis-
Old French
desconfit
Middle English
discomfiten
English, today
discomfit

Built from

desconfire · Old French — to undo, to destroy
des- · Old French — completely
com- · Latin — with, together
faciō · Latin — to do, to make

From Middle English discomfiten, from Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire (“to undo, to destroy”), from des- (“completely”), from Latin dis- + Old French confire (“to make”), from Latin cōnficiō (“to finish up, to destroy”), from com- (“with, together”) + faciō (“to do, to make”). Later sense of “to embarrass, to disconcert” due to confusion with unrelated discomfort.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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