condescend

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English condescenden, condescendre (“to deign, condescend; to accede graciously; to agree; to agree to, give consent; to make a concession, yield; etc.”), from Old French condescendre (“to descend, go down; to agree or assent to”) (modern French condescendre), from Ecclesiastical Latin condēscendere, the present active infinitive of condēscendō (“to stoop down; to condescend”), from Latin con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of several objects) + dēscendō (“to come or go down, descend; to stoop down”) (from dē- (prefix denoting reversal or undoing) + scandō (“to ascend, mount; to clamber”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to climb, scale; to dart; to jump; etc.”))). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌkɒndɪˈsɛnd/ (General American) IPA(key): /ˌkɑndəˈsɛnd/ Rhymes: -ɛnd Hyphenation: con‧de‧scend === Verb === condescend (third-person singular simple present condescends, present participle condescending, simple past and past participle condescended) (intransitive) (obsolete) To come down or go down; to descend. (figurative) To come down from a superior position and do something; to deign; (with a negative connotation) to stoop. To treat someone as though inferior; to talk down to someone; to patronize. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to go into detail; to particularize, to specify. (obsolete) To agree to something; to accede, to assent, to consent; also, to reach an agreement. Antonym: (obsolete, rare) discondescend (obsolete) To give way or yield in a deferential manner; to be amenable or compliant. (obsolete) To graciously give; to vouchsafe. (obsolete) To reach a certain point; to settle on. (obsolete) To secretly make plans, usually to bring about a bad or illegal result; to conspire, to plot. (transitive) (nonstandard, rare) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to talk down to (someone); to patronize. Synonym: belittle (chiefly passive voice, obsolete) Often preceded by the dummy pronoun it: to agree to (something); to consent. ==== Usage notes ==== Condescend is a catenative verb that takes the to-infinitive: see Appendix:English catenative verbs. Regarding sense 1.2.1 (“to come down from a superior position and do something”), in older usage the word could be used positively or neutrally to describe the action of someone who socialized in a friendly way with their social inferiors. (For example, in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813), a character could say of another, “[…] I need not say you will be delighted with her. She is all affability and condescension.”) Now that the concept of social inferiors has largely fallen out of currency, the word tends to be used negatively, conveying the idea that a person is looking down on others. Regarding sense 1.2.2 (“to treat someone as though inferior”), the derived participial adjective condescending and the corresponding adverb condescendingly are more common than the verb itself. ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== condescendence condescend upon condescension descend ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== (to treat as inferior): put on airs === References === === Further reading === condescension on Wikipedia.Wikipedia William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “condescend”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. “condescend”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.