Revised as of
8 Sept 2022
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 |
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Part of Grammar: | |||
Verb, transitive
Third person present verb: destains |
Noun 1; Verb, transitive 2 Plural for the noun and third person present verb: disdains |
Verb, transitive
Third person present verb: distains |
Verb, transitive
Third person present verb: distrains |
[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: 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
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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: She remained standing, pointedly disdaining his invitation to sit down. |
She hath…distained her honorable blood– Spenser
The worthiness of praise distains his worth. |
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:
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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). |
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.
Resources for Destain vs Disdain vs Distain vs Distrain
Apple Dictionary.com
Merriam-Webster: distain
Pinterest Photo Credits
Mostly my own.