Contempt

How to spell contempt

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce contempt

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contempt mean?

1. nounA feeling that someone or something is worthless and deserves no respect.
2. nounOpen disobedience towards, or disrespect for, the authority of a court.

Contempt in a sentence

• She felt nothing but contempt for the people who had cheated her.

• The witness was held in contempt for refusing to answer the judge.

• His contempt for the rules eventually cost him his job.

• Shouting at the magistrate landed him a charge of contempt of court.

Where does contempt come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin contemptus, a noun meaning 'scorn' or 'disdain', which grew out of the verb contemnere, 'to despise utterly'. That verb joined the intensifying prefix con-, here meaning 'thoroughly', to temnere, which meant 'to scorn or look down on'. English took the word in during the late 1300s, partly through Old French, keeping the Latin sense of regarding someone or something as worthless. The silent run of letters at the end, 'mpt', is the genuine spelling trap: the same cluster survives in close relatives such as 'tempt' and 'attempt', and it preserves the shape of the Latin past participle contemptus. Over time English also developed the legal sense, 'contempt of court', for open defiance of a judge's authority.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive prefix: thoroughly)
• tempt (from Latin temnere: to scorn, despise)
• -t (noun ending)