mortify

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman mortifier, Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificare (“cause death”), from Latin mors (“death”) + -ficāre (“-fy”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈmɔːtɪfʌɪ/

Verb

mortify (third-person singular simple present mortifies, present participle mortifying, simple past and past participle mortified)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To kill. [14th-17th c.]
2. (obsolete) To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize. [14th-18th c.]
3. (obsolete, transitive) To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic. [15th-18th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.3:

     Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison to mortifie [transl. tuer] his legs.

4. To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on. [from 15th c.]

   Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body. I wonder if such ascetics are masochists?

5. (usually used passively) To embarrass, to humiliate. [from 17th c.]

   I was so mortified I could have died right there, instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again.

Derived terms

• mortification