Other forms: dismayed
Dismay is the sudden loss of heart that comes with bad news. Not anger — the feeling of the floor going.
It is a formal word and it appears constantly in reporting: expressed dismay, to his dismay, a note of dismay. The construction much to her dismay is close to fixed. As a verb it is usually passive, since people are dismayed by things rather than dismaying them. What distinguishes it from disappointment is the element of shock, because dismay arrives all at once.
1noundismayA feeling of shock and discouragement at something bad.
“There was general dismay at the announcement.”
2verbfillTo fill someone with discouragement.
“The scale of the damage dismayed them.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Dismay is being stripped of strength. Vulgar Latin exmagare meant to disable somebody, built on a Germanic word for power, which is the same root that gives may and main.
Proto-Indo-European
*megʰ- — to be able
Proto-Germanic
*maginą
Vulgar Latin
*exmagare — to deprive (someone) of strength, to disable
Old French
esmaier — to frighten
Anglo-Norman
*desmaiier
Middle English
dismayen
English, today
dismay
Built from
From Middle English dismayen, from Anglo-Norman desmaiier, alteration of Old French esmaier (“to frighten”), probably from Vulgar Latin exmagare (“to deprive (someone) of strength, to disable”), from ex- + magare (“to enable, empower”), from Proto-Germanic maginą, maganą (“might, power”), from Proto-Indo-European megʰ- (“to be able”). Akin to Old High German magan, megin (“power, might, main”), Old English mæġen (“might, main”), Old High German magan, mugan (“to be powerful, able”), Old English magan (“to be able”). Cognate with Portuguese desmaiar (“to faint”) and Spanish esmayar. See also Portuguese esmagar, Spanish amagar. More at main, may.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA