scorn

Etymology

Verb from Middle English scornen, schornen, alteration of Old French escharnir, from Vulgar Latin *escarnire, from Proto-Germanic *skarnjan, which could be from *skeraną (“to shear”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”)), or possibly related to *skarną (“dung, filth”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱerd-, *(s)ḱer- (“dung, manure, filth”)). Noun from Old French escarn (cognate with Portuguese escárnio, Spanish escarnio and Italian scherno).

verb

1. (transitive) To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
   We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful. 1871, C. J. Smith, Synonyms Discriminated
2. (transitive) To reject, turn down.
   He scorned her romantic advances.
3. (transitive) To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.
   She scorned to show weakness.
4. (intransitive) To scoff, to express contempt.
   For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne. 1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. … Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for William Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, →OCLC

noun

1. (uncountable) Contempt or disdain.
   Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn 1967, John Berryman, Berryman’s Sonnets, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2. (countable) A display of disdain; a slight.
   Every sullen frown and bitter scorn / But fanned the fuel that too fast did burn. 1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover
3. (countable) An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.