condign

English

Etymology

From Middle English condigne, from Old French condigne, from Latin condignus, from con- +‎ dignus (“worthy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈdaɪn/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪn

Adjective

condign (comparative more condign, superlative most condign)

1. (rare) Fitting, appropriate, deserved, especially denoting punishment
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     Unless it were a bloody murderer, / Or foul felonious thief that fleeced poor passengers, / I never gave them condign punishment:

   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull:

     ch. 14:

     Consider, then, who is your best friend: he that would have brought him to condign punishment, or he that has saved him?

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     When our Mahmouds or Selims of Baker Street or Belgrave Square visit their Fatimas with condign punishment, their mothers sew up Fatima’s sack for her, and her sisters and sisters-in-law see her well under water.

   • 1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC, I:

     Pooh-bah: And so, / Although / I wish to go, / And greatly pine / To brightly shine, / And take the line / Of a hero fine, / With grief condign / I must decline –

   • 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire:

     For a Christian, no Beyond is acceptable or imaginable without the participation of God in our eternal destiny, and this in turn implies a condign punishment for every sin, great and small.

   • 2004 October 21, George F. Will, “Voters' Obligations”, in The Washington Post:

     [A]n undervote usually reflects either voter carelessness, for which the voter suffers the condign punishment of an unrecorded preference, or reflects the voter's choice not to express a preference[.]

Derived terms

• condignity

Translations

fitting

• Bulgarian: заслужен (bg) (zaslužen)
• French: condigne (fr)
• German: angemessen (de), gebührend (de), passend (de), gerechte (Strafe) f
• Middle English: digne, condigne
• Russian: заслу́женный (ru) (zaslúžennyj)
• Ukrainian: заслу́жений (zaslúženyj)

Anagrams

• conding