Word Confusion: Discomfit versus Discomfort

Posted November 16, 2021 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

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That’s me! I like to discomfit people around me. Make ’em think. Discomfort them.

To be fair, the differences between discomfit and discomfort are negligible these days, well, other than discomfit is primarily a verb while discomfort is primarily a noun.

Discomfit used to mean to defeat utterly.

Discomfort used to mean anxiety, embarrass, make uneasy, or nervousness.

Etymologically unrelated, the modern usage for this pair as verbs has collapsed into make (someone) feel uneasy.

To sum it up:

Discomfit	Discomfort
Primarily a verb – to defeat	Primarily a noun – to embarrass
Today, as verbs, both mean to make someone uneasy.

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 noir for you from either end.

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Discomfit	Discomfort
Roman Hardok vs Jakob Jakobi, 2 December 2017, is Snater.com‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Hardok discomfited Jakobi.	Anxiety at Public Speaking is under the CC0 license, via Max Pixel. — He’s clearly discomforted at the idea of speaking in public.
Part of Grammar:
Noun; Verb, transitive Plural for the noun: discomfit Third person present verb: discomfits Past tense or past participle: discomfited Gerund or present participle: discomfiting	Noun; Verb, transitive Plural for the noun: discomforts Third person present verb: discomforts Past tense or past participle: discomforted Gerund or present participle: discomforting
Noun: [Archaic] Rout Defeat Verb, transitive: Make (someone) feel uneasy or embarrassed To confuse and deject Disconcert To frustrate the plans of Thwart Foil [Archaic] To defeat utterly Rout	Noun: Slight pain A state of unease, worry, or embarrassment Something that makes a person feel physically uncomfortable Verb, transitive: Make (someone) feel uneasy, anxious, or embarrassed Make (someone) physically uncomfortable Cause slight pain to
Examples:
Noun: “Much to our discomfit, we were so baffled by calms and light winds, that we were a fortnight in sailing three hundred miles!” (Williams). Verb, transitive: He was not noticeably discomfited by her tone. She was discomfited by a question. He will be particularly discomfited by the governor’s dismissal of his plan. The people discomfited by these leaks are people who deserve to be discomfited. We need to discomfit our foes. The army was discomfited in every battle.	Noun: The patient complained of discomfort in the left calf. His remarks caused her discomfort. Her neck hurt and her feet ached, but the physical discomforts were the least of her worries. The discomforts of air travel have increased in this past year. Verb, transitive: She liked to discomfort my mother by her remarks. I am often discomforted at night by pain in my knee joint. World leaders will have been greatly discomforted by these events.
Derivatives:
Adjective: discomfiting Adverb: discomfitingly Noun: discomfiter, discomfiture	Adjective: discomfortable, discomforting Adverb: discomfortingly
History of the Word:
Middle English, in the sense defeat in battle, from the Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire, based on the Latin dis- (expressing reversal) + conficere (put together).	Middle English, as a verb in the sense dishearten, from the Old French desconforter (verb), desconfort (noun), from des- (expressing reversal) + conforter (to comfort).

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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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