scorn

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.

   The Cry is ſtill, they come: our Caſtles ſtrength / Will laugh a Siedge to ſcorne

2. 2
   verb

   To reject, turn down.

   He scorned her romantic advances.

3. 3
   verb

   To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.

   She scorned to show weakness.

4. 4
   verb

   To scoff, to express contempt.

   For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.

5. 5
   noun

   Contempt or disdain.

   Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn

6. 6
   noun

   A display of disdain; a slight.

   VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.

7. 7
   noun

   An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.

   Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.

8. 8
   noun

   open disrespect for a person or thing

Etymology

Verb from Middle English scornen, schornen, alteration of Old French escharnir, from Vulgar Latin *escarnire, from Proto-West Germanic *skarnijan, possibly from Proto-Germanic *skeraną (“to shear”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”)), or possibly related to *skarną (“dung, filth”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱerd-, *(s)ḱer- (“dung, manure, filth”)). Noun from Old French escarn (cognate with Portuguese escárnio, Spanish escarnio and Italian scherno). Cognate with Middle High German schern (“joke, mockery, scorn”), Old English sċierniċġe (“female entertainer, juggler, actress”).