Thursday, August 19, 2010

Today's Word "discomfit"


Discomfit \dis-KUHM-fit; dis-kuhm-FIT\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To make uneasy or perplexed, or to put into a state of embarrassment; to disconcert; to upset. 2 : To thwart; to frustrate the plans of. 3 : (Archaic) To defeat in battle.

"Starr Bright was used to the attention of strangers and would have been discomfited if no one noticed her, so leggy and glamorous." -- Joyce Carol Oates, 'Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon'

Discomfit comes from Old French desconfit , past participle of desconfire , from Latin dis- + conficere , "to make ready, to prepare, to bring about," from com- + facere , "to make."

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