discomfit
b'\\n \\n \\n Merriam-Webster\'s Word of the Day for April 11, 2024 is:\\n \\n \\n discomfit • \\\\diss-KUM-fit\\\\ • verb To discomfit someone is to make them confused or upset. Discomfit is a formal synonym of the also formal (but slightly less so) disconcert. // Jacob was discomfited by the new employee\\u2019s forward, probing questions.
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\\u201cBosley Crowther, chief film critic for The New York Times, didn\\u2019t quite know what to make of Dr. Strangelove at the time of its release in January 1964. \\u2026 What exactly was Kubrick\\u2019s point? \\u2018\\u2026I want to know what this picture proves.\\u2019 We may find it odd for an influential critic to expect a movie to \\u2018prove\\u2019 anything. Kubrick\\u2019s aim was manifestly not to prove, but to subvert and discomfit.\\u201d \\u2014 Andrew J. Bacevich, The Nation, 23 Mar. 2023
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Disconcerted by discomfit and discomfort? While the two look similar and share some semantic territory, they\\u2019re etymologically unrelated. Unlike discomfort, discomfit has no connection to comfort, which comes ultimately from the Latin adjective fortis, meaning \\u201cstrong.\\u201d Instead, discomfit was borrowed from Anglo-French in the 13th century with the meaning \\u201cto defeat in battle.\\u201d Within a couple centuries, discomfit had expanded beyond the battlefield to mean \\u201cto thwart,\\u201d a meaning that eventually softened into the now-common \\u201cto disconcert or confuse\\u201d use\\u2014one quite close to the uneasiness and annoyance communicated by discomfort. For a time, usage commentators were keen to keep a greater distance between discomfit and discomfort; they recommended that discomfit be limited to its original \\u201cto defeat\\u201d meaning, but they\\u2019ve largely given up now, and the \\u201cdisconcert or confuse\\u201d meaning is fully established. There is one major difference between discomfit and discomfort, though: discomfit is used almost exclusively as a verb, while discomfort is much more commonly used as a noun than a verb.
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