Disqualification

How to spell disqualification

16 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce disqualification

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disqualification mean?

1. nounThe act of barring someone from a competition, role, or right, often for breaking a rule.

Disqualification in a sentence

• The runner faced disqualification after a false start.

• A drink-driving conviction can lead to disqualification from holding a licence.

Where does disqualification come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'qualify', which English took in the sixteenth century from the French qualifier, itself from the medieval Latin qualificare, meaning 'to make of a certain kind' or 'to describe the quality of'. That Latin verb joins qualis, meaning 'of what kind', with facere, meaning 'to make', so to qualify was originally to assign a quality or describe what kind of thing something was. The sense narrowed over time to 'meet the required conditions', and the noun qualification came to mean both a skill that fits you for something and a condition that must be met. Adding the prefix dis-, which signals reversal or removal, produced disqualification: the act of stripping away the right to take part or the fitness to hold a position. The long spelling simply stacks these honest pieces, dis + qualifi + cation, so spelling each block in turn is the safest route through it.

How the word is built

• dis- (reversal/removal)
• qualifi- (from qualify: Latin qualis 'of what kind'
• facere 'to make')
• -cation (noun-forming suffix)