contempt (English)

Where does "contempt" come from?

The English word 'contempt' derives from the Latin noun 'contemptus', meaning 'scorn'[1]. This noun was formed from the Latin verb 'contemnō', which meant 'I scorn' or 'I despise'[1][2]. The verb developed from the intensive prefix 'com-' combined with 'temnō'[1], a stem that linguists trace back to an ancestral Proto-Indo-European verb based on the root '*temh₁-', originally meaning 'to cut'[3][4].

Open questions

Linguist Michiel de Vaan suggests that the simple Latin verb 'temnō' may actually be a back-formation from 'contemnō', which has much earlier attestations. [3] [4]
While the verbal stem is widely reconstructed to the Proto-Indo-European root '*temh₁-' meaning 'to cut', de Vaan notes an alternative derivation from '*stemb-', meaning 'shake violently'. [4]
Gerhard Meiser proposed that the perfect stem '-tempsī' arose through contamination with an s-aorist from '*stemb-', although it could simply reflect a standard Latin perfect development. [4]

Full etymology tree

contempt (English), 'The state or act of contemning; the feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn, disdain.'
- derived contemptus (Latin), 'despised, despicable'
  - derived contemno (Latin), 'to scorn, despise, show contempt'
    - derived *temh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to cut'

Ancestors

contemptus (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

contemptuous (English)
beneath contempt (English)
contemptible (English)
contemptive (English)
contemptive (English)
contempt of Congress (English)
contempt of cop (English)
contempt of court (English)
contempt of Parliament (English)
familiarity breeds contempt (English)
hold in contempt (English)
in contempt (English)

Sources

Updated October 2026

More words starting with C

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris