A Disporting Post Comprised of Four Studies

As I indicated in my last post and in previous posts, many of my ideas come from my reading. In addition to the appraise/apprise issue, I encountered two other uses that made me wonder: compose/comprise and disport/comport.

Compose/comprise is one of the most common confusions in usage. It may help to know that one of the definitions of comprise is “to be composed of”. They are not synonymous, and actually have a slightly different perspective on composition.

Compose comes through the Old French word composer, which is formed from the prefix com-, meaning “with” and poser, meaning “to place”, so it meant literally “to place with” and was used mostly in reference to writing. Composer came from the Latin word componere, from which we get the word composite. Its entry into Middle English came about 1400 as the word composen or compousen. It means “to form in combination; make up; constitute.” The key to understanding is “to form…” because when something is composed it is composed in being formed. Comprised is a description of the parts that came together (composed) the already-formed whole.

Comprise means “to contain or include”, or “to consist of or be composed of”. It came to English at about the same time as compose, but through Old French from a slightly different Latin word, or different form of the same Latin word: comprehendere (Latin scholars are encouraged to weigh in here.) The Old French word was compris, the past participle of   comprendre.

You may quote me in saying that in communication the composition is completed and is comprised of various components.

I encountered the word disport, and it seemed to be used in the same manner that comport would be, so I had to “look it up”.

Comport is a verb transitive means “to behave or conduct oneself in a specified manner” according to my dictionary, but it only adds in the verb intransitive form the additional meaning that there is agreement or accord between behavior/conduct. It came to English a little before comprise or compose, from the Latin comportare through Middle French. The Middle French word was comportement, and meant behavior.

Disport is a verb intransitive that means “to indulge in amusement, play, or frolic.” In its transitive form it means to amuse or divert oneself. It came at about the same time (late 14^th century) as comport, originally from the Latin word for carry (portare) which in Old French added the prefix des- (meaning “away”) to form the word desporter. While the literal translation meant “to carry [the mind] away from”, it came to mean any amusement. It arrived in English through the Anglo-French disporter.

An accurate usage of the words comport and disport would be a reference to comporting oneself after being disported. While comport has more of a connotation of behavior than disport, there’s not enough differentiation to be concerned about. Using either as the opposite (antonym) of the other is acceptable and recommended.

Now that I’ve composed this blog, it is comprised of four word studies, and while I got disported by providing a quote on “com-“ words, I believe I comported myself well nonetheless.