Word Confusion: Destain vs Disdain vs Distain vs Distrain

Posted June 6, 2012 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
8 Sept 2022

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Interestingly, there is not much difference between disdain and distain other than the latter being more likely to appear in a more poetic style of writing and very useful for setting that more historic mood if you are writing a period piece of fiction.

Now, destain sounds like something I’d be doing in the laundry room, but no. Destain has a much “loftier” purpose than de-staining my clothes. It’s more of a purposeful staining in the lab.

Disdain is all about contempt or rejection out of feelings of pride or superiority.

Distain is primarily about besmirching honor, staining it.

Distrain is not a word I’ve come across before I explored the above word confusion. I doubt I’ll come across it anywhere else either. One is more likely to encounter eminent domain, which is the same general idea in that the government will seize your property to put up a shopping mall or an apartment or office complex that will benefit corporations but not the true owner of the property.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end. Consider sharing this Word Confusion with friends by tweeting it.

Destain	Disdain	Distain	Distrain
High School Biology by CK-12 Foundation is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Knowing biology provides tips on how to destain your clothes.	Elderly Exiled French Aristocrats at Tellson’s by Fred Barnard is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — Aristocrats with their noses in the air, showing their disdain.	Perspiration Stain on White Cotton T-shirt is Daniel Case’s own work under the GFDL or via CC BY-SA 3.0 license, Wikimedia Commons. — Not very poetic, but a sweat stain is still a stain.	Looters in New Orleans by Infrogmation of New Orleans (Flickr: BanksyLootersC) is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Not that exact, but it gets the idea across of distrain, of seizing someone’s property.
Part of Grammar:
Verb, transitive Third person present verb: destains Past tense or past participle: destained Gerund or present participle: destaining	Noun ¹; Verb, transitive ² Plural for the noun and third person present verb: disdains Past tense or past participle: disdained Gerund or present participle: disdaining	Verb, transitive Third person present verb: distains Past tense or past participle: distained Gerund or present participle: distaining	Verb, transitive Third person present verb: distrains Past tense or past participle: distrained Gerund or present participle: distraining
[Biology] Selectively remove stain from (a specimen for microscopy, a chromatography gel, etc.) after it has previously been stained	Noun: Feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one’s consideration or respect ¹ Contempt Verb, transitive: Consider to be unworthy of one’s consideration ² Refuse or reject out of feelings of pride or superiority	[Archaic] Chiefly used in poetry Take away the color of Stain To stain the honor of Discolor Disgrace Sully Tarnish	Seize someone’s property to obtain payment of rent or other money owed Seize the property of someone to obtain payment of money owed
Examples:
Perriman, you’ll need to destain that sample. Have the intern destain those slides. Don’t worry about destaining the slides.	Noun: Her lip curled in disdain. He had the typical aristocrat’s disdain for people who worked in trade. Verb, transitive: He disdained to discuss the matter further. She remained standing, pointedly disdaining his invitation to sit down.	She hath…distained her honorable blood– Spenser The worthiness of praise distains his worth. – Shakespeare	Legislation has restricted the right to distrain goods found on the premises. The government applied political pressure by distraining debtors.
Derivatives:
			Noun: distrainer, distrainment
History of the Word:
Its first known use was in the 14th century. Middle English disteynen, from the Anglo-French desteindre meaning to take away the color of, which is from de- + teindre meaning to dye, which is from the Latin tingere meaning to wet or dye.	Middle English from the Old French and both are based on the Latin dedignari, from de- (expressing reversal) + dignari (consider worthy) from dignus meaning worthy: Old French desdeign. Old French desdeignier.	Its first known use was in 1927.	Middle English from the Old French destreindre, from the Latin distringere meaning stretch apart from dis- (apart) + stringere (tighten).

Destain

Disdain

Distain

Distrain

High School Biology by CK-12 Foundation is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

—

Knowing biology provides tips on how to destain your clothes.

Elderly exiled French aristocrats with their noses in the air

Elderly Exiled French Aristocrats at Tellson’s by Fred Barnard is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

—

Aristocrats with their noses in the air, showing their disdain.

Perspiration Stain on White Cotton T-shirt is Daniel Case’s own work under the GFDL or via CC BY-SA 3.0 license, Wikimedia Commons.

—

Not very poetic, but a sweat stain is still a stain.

Looters in New Orleans by Infrogmation of New Orleans (Flickr: BanksyLootersC) is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

—

Not that exact, but it gets the idea across of distrain, of seizing someone’s property.

Part of Grammar:

Verb, transitive

Third person present verb: destains
Past tense or past participle: destained
Gerund or present participle: destaining

Noun ¹;
Verb, transitive ²

Plural for the noun and third person present verb: disdains
Past tense or past participle: disdained
Gerund or present participle: disdaining

Verb, transitive

Third person present verb: distains
Past tense or past participle: distained
Gerund or present participle: distaining

Verb, transitive

Third person present verb: distrains
Past tense or past participle: distrained
Gerund or present participle: distraining

[Biology] Selectively remove stain from (a specimen for microscopy, a chromatography gel, etc.) after it has previously been stained

Noun:
Feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one’s consideration or respect ¹

Contempt

Verb, transitive:
Consider to be unworthy of one’s consideration ²

Refuse or reject out of feelings of pride or superiority

[Archaic] Chiefly used in poetry

Take away the color of

Stain

To stain the honor of

Discolor

Disgrace

Sully

Tarnish

Seize someone’s property to obtain payment of rent or other money owed

Seize the property of someone to obtain payment of money owed

Examples:

Perriman, you’ll need to destain that sample.

Have the intern destain those slides.

Don’t worry about destaining the slides.

Noun:
Her lip curled in disdain.

He had the typical aristocrat’s disdain for people who worked in trade.

Verb, transitive:
He disdained to discuss the matter further.

She remained standing, pointedly disdaining his invitation to sit down.

She hath…distained her honorable blood– Spenser

The worthiness of praise distains his worth. – Shakespeare

Legislation has restricted the right to distrain goods found on the premises.

The government applied political pressure by distraining debtors.

Derivatives:

Noun: distrainer, distrainment

History of the Word:

Its first known use was in the 14th century.

Middle English disteynen, from the Anglo-French desteindre meaning to take away the color of, which is from de- + teindre meaning to dye, which is from the Latin tingere meaning to wet or dye.

Middle English from the Old French and both are based on the Latin dedignari, from de- (expressing reversal) + dignari (consider worthy) from dignus meaning worthy:

Old French desdeign.
Old French desdeignier.

Its first known use was in 1927.

Middle English from the Old French destreindre, from the Latin distringere meaning stretch apart from dis- (apart) + stringere (tighten).

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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