Other forms: distrusts
Distrust is a lack of confidence in somebody. Deep distrust, distrust of politicians, regard with distrust.
It is milder than mistrust in some ears and stronger in others, but the useful distinction is that distrust usually rests on a reason and mistrust on a feeling. It works as a verb too, and the dis- simply negates trust.
1noundistrustA lack of confidence in somebody.
“After years of broken promises, the villagers treated the new mayor with deep distrust.”
distrust is a lack of confidence.
Also accepted in games: mistrust
Dis- plus trust, replacing an older English wantrust. Trust comes from Old Norse traust, confidence.
Proto-Indo-European
*deru- — be firm, hard, solid
Old English
*trust
Middle English
trust — trust, protection
English
trust
English, today
distrust
From dis + trust, alteration of the earlier term wantrust. trust comes from Middle English trust (“trust, protection”). Long considered a borrowing from Old Norse traust (“confidence, help, protection”), from Proto-Germanic traustą, but the root vocalism is incompatible, so trust has come to be considered a reflex of an unattested Old English trust, from a rare zero-grade Proto-Germanic variant of the same root also attested in Middle High German getrüste (“host”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European deru- (“be firm, hard, solid”). 2 Cognate with stq Traast (“comfort, solace”), West Frisian treast (“comfort, consolation, solace”), Dutch troost (“comfort, consolation”), German Trost (“comfort, consolation”), Low German Troost (“comfort, consolation”), lb Trouscht (“consolation”), Danish trøst (“comfort, solace”), Icelandic traust (“faith, trust; confidence”), Norwegian Nynorsk trøst, trøyst (“consolation”), Swedish tröst (“comfort, consolation”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌹 (“covenant, pact”). a doublet of tryst. More at true, tree.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA