Discouraged

How to spell discouraged

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce discouraged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does discouraged mean?

1. adjectiveHaving lost confidence, enthusiasm, or hope.
2. verbPast tense of discourage: persuaded someone against a course of action, or sapped their confidence.

Discouraged in a sentence

• adjective

  After three rejection letters she felt deeply discouraged about her job search.

• verb

  The high fees discouraged many customers from upgrading their plan.

• adjective

  He grew discouraged when the repairs cost far more than the quote.

• verb

  Her parents discouraged the move abroad until she had savings.

Where does discouraged come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin cor, meaning 'heart', the organ long imagined as the seat of bravery and spirit. From cor came the Old French word corage, 'courage' or 'spirit', and the verb descoragier was built by adding des-, a prefix signalling removal or reversal, so the whole thing literally meant 'to take the heart out of' someone. English borrowed it in the late 1400s as 'discourage', and 'discouraged' is its past and participle form. The hidden trap in the spelling is the silent connection to 'courage': writers remember the 'cour' but sometimes drop the 'o' or mishandle the soft 'g'. Knowing that a discouraged person has had their courage drained makes both the meaning and the spelling easier to hold in mind.

How the word is built

• dis- (reversal, removal of)
• courage (root from Latin cor: heart)
• -ed (past tense / participial-adjective suffix)