condign

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /kənˈdaɪn/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪn

Adjective[edit]

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[edit]

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]