Discounted

How to spell discounted

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce discounted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does discounted mean?

1. adjectiveOffered or sold at a reduced price, below the usual or full amount.
2. verbPast tense of discount: regarded a possibility or claim as unlikely or unimportant, and so dismissed it.

Discounted in a sentence

• adjective

  The shop sold the winter coats at a heavily discounted price.

• verb

  The manager discounted the rumour because no evidence supported it.

• adjective

  Members receive discounted tickets for every weekday matinee.

• verb

  Investigators discounted the theory after reviewing the timeline.

Where does discounted come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grew out of the verb 'discount', which English took from the Old French desconter and its source in the Medieval Latin discomputare, meaning 'to count off' or 'to deduct'. That Latin verb joined the prefix dis-, carrying a sense of removal or reversal, to computare, 'to reckon or calculate', which is also the distant ancestor of the modern word 'compute'. When it entered English commercial language in the early 1600s, 'discount' first described the practice of deducting an amount from a bill or a sum of money lent. From that financial root it broadened to mean reducing a price, and then took on the figurative sense of mentally deducting credibility from a claim, that is, dismissing it. The past form 'discounted' keeps the plain dis- + count + -ed shape, so the spelling trap is simply remembering the single 'c' and the 't' before the ending.

How the word is built

• dis- (away, reversal)
• count (to reckon, from computare 'to calculate')
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)