Discomfited, Disconcerted, or in Discomfort?

I ran across the word discomfit recently and realized I did not know what it meant and how it was different from discomfort. So a trip to the dictionary was warranted in order that you might be able to be discriminating and accurate in your use of various words for being uneasy.

Discomfit is primarily a verb whereas discomfort is a noun but can be used with an object as a verb. Discomfort means to confuse and deject or to disconcert (now we have a third word to differentiate.) It also means to frustrate the plans of or to thwart or foil. When you have confused someone by a statement and they are now either sad or a little angry with you or even frustrated you have discomfited them by your words.  When you have made a person stop their plans due to an uneasy feeling that your assertion has caused, they have been discomfited by your contention. The word is used in conjunction with an object.

Etymonline.com and its etymology provide some insight. Discomfit came to English about 1200 as an adjective, from the Old French word desconfit that meant defeated or destroyed (like in battle, a definition deemed Archaic by my dictionary). It was formed from the Old French prefix des- that designated a negative and confire which meant make or prepare or accomplish. So discomfit happens when someone becomes unprepared or unready due to another’s actions or words. Etymonline.com goes on to say that it took 100 years for the word to change from an adjective to a verb.  Then it says that discomfit as a “weaker sense of ‘disconcert’ is first recorded [in the] 1520s in English, probably by confusion with discomfort.”

So if discomfit is weaker than disconcert, what is disconcert? Disconcert is a verb used with an object (just like discomfit) that means to disturb the self-possession of, to perturb or ruffle. That sounds like a weaker form of discomfit, not the other way around. Then the second definition of disconcert is given, “to throw into disorder or confusion.”  Now we have two meanings of disconcert, one that is weaker than discomfit and one that is stronger. Does the etymology help? Disconcert has been used in English since the 1680s, when it was adopted from the Middle French word disconcerter, which meant “confused” and was formed by combining dis- (do the opposite of)with concerter . Then etymonline says “see concert.” Disconcerting, isn’t it? Or did that meaning discomfit you?

Concert is a noun in English since the 1660s (prior to disconcert) that means agreement or harmony, a meaning it retains. The French got the word from the Italian word concerto that had the same meaning. What is interesting is that the Latin word concertare from which the Italians got concerto meant “to contend, contest, or dispute”. But according to etymonline.com “Before the word entered English, [the] meaning shifted from ‘to strive against’ to ‘to strive alongside.’” It also says there is some disagreement, one etymologist contending that concerto comes from the Latin word concantare that means to sing together. At any rate, it now means to do something in agreement or in harmony.

(Concert as a word for a public performance came into being at the same time as disconcert, only further confusing – or disconcerting – English speakers and writers.)

Discomfort, or the absence of comfort, is a noun that can also have a meaning of uneasiness or even mild pain. It can also be used as a verb used with an object, but it is most often used as a noun.  It originally entered English as a verb, around the year 1300, but by the middle of the century developed the noun sense that is more common. It came from Old French (we have the Old French to thank for our discomfort with these words today), from desconfort. Again, we have the prefix des- now with the word conforter from which we get the word comfort.

Comfort is a verb meaning soothe or console, but also a noun meaning relief or consolation, or simply a state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants with freedom from pain and anxiety.

So if comfort can mean ease, why do we have the word discomfort rather than disease to mean lack of ease? Originally (in the early 1300s) disease meant discomfort or inconvenience, but by the end of the 1300s came to refer to sickness or illness. By the end of the 1600s it lost the meaning of discomfort.

Discomfort had discomfited disease’s meaning of lack of ease. That probably makes you disconcerted.