deign

English

WOTD – 5 February 2026

Etymology

From Middle English deinen, deynen (“to consider (something) suitable to one’s dignity or worth, condescend; to appear worthy; to condescend to grant (something), permit, vouchsafe; to regard (someone) as worthy; to consecrate, dedicate (something)”),^[1] from Old French daigner, degnier, deigner, deignier (“to condescend, deign”) (modern French daigner), from Latin dignāre, the present active infinitive of dignō (“to deem fitting, suitable, or worthy; to condescend, deign”), from dignus (“fitting, suitable, worthy; worthy of”)^[2] (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to perceive; to take”)) + -ō (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs).

cognates

Italian degnare
Occitan deinar, denhar

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /deɪn/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Audio (General American): (file)
Homophone: Dane
Rhymes: -eɪn

Verb

deign (third-person singular simple present deigns, present participle deigning, simple past and past participle deigned)

(transitive)
1. (chiefly in the negative) To consider it appropriate or worthy to do or give (something), often when it is seen as beneath one's dignity; to condescend, to vouchsafe.
  - c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 131, column 2:
    Nor vvould vve deigne him buriall of his men, / Till he diſburſed, at Saint Colmes ynch, / Ten thouſand Dollars, to our generall vſe.
  - 1634, William Wood, “To the Right Worshipfull, My Much Honored Friend, Sir William Armyne, Knight and Baronet”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, page 8:
    [T]hough this my vvorke, ovvne not vvorth enough to deſerve your patronage, yet ſuch is your benigne humanity, that I am confident you vvill daigne it your protection, under vvhich it vvillingly ſhrovvdes it ſelfe.
  - 1825, Robert Southey, “Canto III”, in A Tale of Paraguay, London: […] [A[ndrew] & R[obert] Spottiswoode] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, stanza 18, page 86:
    And sure a willing ear she well might deign / To one whose tales may equally engage / The wondering mind of youth, the thoughtful heart of age.
  - 1854, [Charlotte Mary Yonge], chapter IX, in Heartsease or The Brother’s Wife […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son […], →OCLC, page 224:
    He, who usually hardly deigned a glance at his infants, now lay gazing with inexpressible softness and sadness at the little sleeping face; […]
  - 1961, “Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost”, in Novena to the Holy Ghost […], [United States]: Catholic Book Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 6:
    O LORD, Jesus Christ, who, before ascending into heaven, didst promise to send the Holy Ghost to finish thy work in the souls of thy Apostles and disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me, that he may perfect in my soul the work of thy grace and thy love.
2. (obsolete) To consider it appropriate or worthy to accept or take (something).
  Antonym: disdain
  - 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Ianuarye. Ægloga Prima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 2, recto:
    Shee deignes not my good will, but doth reprove / And of my rurall muſick holdeth ſcorne.
  - c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 21, column 1:
    Go, go, be gone, to ſaue your Ship from vvrack, / VVhich cannot periſh hauing thee aboarde, / Being deſtin’d to a drier death on ſhore: / I muſt goe ſend ſome better Meſſenger, / I fear my Iulia vvould not daigne my lines, / Receiuing them from ſuch a vvorthleſſe poſt.
  - 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature G3, verso:
    Thou haſt eſtrang'd thy ſelf, and deigneſt not our land: / Farre off to others novv, thy fauour honour breeds, / And high diſdaine doth cauſe thee ſhun our clime (I feare) […]
  - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 344, column 1:
    [A]t thy heele / Did Famine follovv, […] Thou did'ſt drinke / The ſtale [urine] of Horſes, and the gilded Puddle / VVhich Beaſts vvould cough at. Thy pallat thẽ [then] did daine / The rougheſt Berry, on the rudeſt Hedge.
3. (obsolete) Often followed by of: to consider (someone) as worthy of something; to dignify.
  - 1591 (date written), [Daniel Defoe], “Part II. Of the Church in Her Growing State.. Addenda. Here Follows Some Original Papers and Accounts of Things, which are Referred to in the Foregoing Part. No. D. Here Follows the Account which the Presbyterian Party Give of the Same Conference, Extracted from the Memorials of Some of the Persons Present, and from [David] Calderwood’s History of the Church, &c.”, in Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, in Four Periods. […], London: […] Eman[nuel] Matthews […], and T. Warner […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 223:
    VVill you not daigne his Majeſty vvith an Anſvver?
(intransitive) To consider it appropriate or worthy to do something, often when it is seen as beneath one's dignity; to condescend, to think fit, to vouchsafe.
He didn’t even deign to give us a nod of the head; he thought us that far beneath him.
- c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third 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 IV, scene viii], page 167, column 1:
  For Edvvard vvill defeind the Tovvne, and thee, / And all thoſe friends, that deine to follovv mee.
- c. 1599 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], The History of Antonio and Mellida. The First Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Mathewe Lownes, and Thomas Fisher, […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act I, signature C2, verso:
  My fathers Palace, Madam, vvill be proud / To entertaine your preſence, if youle daine / To make repoſe vvithin.
- 1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] Of the Samaritans.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this Present. […], London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, book II [Of the Hebrew Nation and Religion from the Beginning thereof to Our Time], page 130:
  […] Samballat gaue his daughter Nicaſo to Manaſſes, the brother of Iaddus the High Prieſt, in the time of Darius the laſt Perſian Monarch. This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or excommunication, or ſome other puniſhment.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [Q3], verso, lines 219–223:
  Them thus impolid beheld / VVith pittie Heav'ns high King, and to him call'd / Raphael, the ſociable Spirit, that deign'd / To travel vvith Tobias, and ſecur'd / His marriage vvith the ſeaventimes vvedded Maid.
- 1700 December (first performance), N[icholas] Rowe, The Ambitious Step-mother. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Peter Buck, […], published 1701, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 11:
  Fame, […] Deſcribes him bold, and fiercely fond of povver, […] Impatient of Command, and hardly daigning / To be controll'd by his Imperious Mother.
- 1740, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, “Another [Hymn to the Trinity]”, in Hymns and Sacred Poems, Bristol: […] William Strahan; and sold by James Hutton, […]; and at the Foundery […], →OCLC, part II, verse II, page 103:
  O Son [Jesus] of his Love, / VVho deignedſt to die, / Our Curſe to remove, / Our Pardon to buy; […]
- 1879, Matthew Arnold, “George Sand”, in Mixed Essays, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 328:
  The grave and silent peasant whose very dog will hardly deign to bark at you, […]
- 1898, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Cæsar and Cleopatra”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 179:
  Cæsar will deign to choose his wine? Sicilian, Lesbian, Chian—
- 1928 January 18 (date written), B. H. Pennings, “Letters of 1924–31”, in Walter Lagerwey, transl., edited by Xavier G. Colavechio, Letters Written in Good Faith, volume 2 (The Story Continues), De Pere, Wis.: Alt Publishing, published 2006, →OCLC, letter 284, page 237:
  It is about time that Bishop [Thomas Louis] Heylen is coming and deigns to visit us; he has been in Chicago twice, only a few hours from here by train, but he did not come here.
- 1956, Anthony Burgess, chapter 15, in Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), London: Heinemann, published 1968, →ISBN, page 198:
  He will deign to finish this simple fare and wash it down with nothing more Lucullan than beer.
- 2022, Ling Ma, “G”, in Bliss Montage, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:
  Before I could knock, Bonnie opened the door. "Finally you deign to show up" were the first words said to me. It had been a year.

Usage notes

Like condescend, this word was often used in the past with a positive, earnest valence in referring to exalted personages such as God or monarchs. Today it is most often used sarcastically, frequently in the negative, to connote an unjustified air of superiority.

Conjugation

Conjugation of *deign*
	present tense	past tense
infinitive	(to) deign

1st-person singular	deign	deigned
2nd-person singular	deign, deignest^†	deigned, deignedst^†
3rd-person singular	deigns, deigneth^†	deigned
plural	deign	deigned

subjunctive	deign	deigned

imperative	deign	—

participles	deigning	deigned

^† Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

dedeign (Scotland, obsolete)

Related terms

deem
dignity

Translations

(transitive) to consider it appropriate or worthy to do (something), often when it is seen as beneath one’s dignity; (intransitive) to consider it appropriate or worthy to do something, often when it is seen as beneath one’s dignity

Belarusian: удастойваць impf (udastójvacʹ), удастоіць pf (udastóicʹ)
Bulgarian: благоволявам (blagovoljavam), снизхождавам (snizhoždavam)
Czech: uráčit se pf
Dutch: verwaardigen (nl)
Finnish: alentua (fi), suvaita (fi)
French: daigner (fr), condescendre (fr)
Georgian: აღირსა (aɣirsa), იკადრა (iḳadra), ინება (ineba), ღირსად ჩათვალა (ɣirsad čatvala)
German: geruhen (de) (with zu + infinitive), sich (de) herablassen (de) (with zu + infinitive)
Greek: καταδέχομαι (el) (katadéchomai)
Hungarian: kegyeskedik (hu), méltat (hu), méltóztat (hu)/méltóztatik (hu)
Italian: degnare (it)
Latin: digno (la)
Macedonian: удо́стои (udóstoi), удосто́јува (udostójuva), благо́воли (blagóvoli), по́вела (póvela)
Māori: tapatu
Middle English: deynen
Polish: raczyć (pl) impf
Portuguese: dignar-se a
Russian: снизойти́ (ru) pf (snizojtí), соблаговоли́ть (ru) pf (soblagovolítʹ), соизво́лить (ru) pf (soizvólitʹ), удосто́ить (ru) pf (udostóitʹ)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: удо́стојити

Latin: udóstojiti (sh)
Spanish: dignarse (es)

(transitive) to consider it appropriate or worthy to give (something), often when it is seen as beneath one’s dignity

Czech: milostivě se uvolit pf, uráčit se pf
Finnish: suoda (fi)

References

^ “deinen, v.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “deign, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2025; “deign, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

nidge, gnide, negid, Edgin, digne, Niğde, dinge, Dieng

[1] “deinen, v.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[2] “deign, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2025; “deign, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1]

[2]