discomfiture

English

Etymology

From Old French desconfiture (“rout, defeat”); compare French déconfiture.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkʌmfɪtʃə(ɹ)/, /dɪsˈkʊmfɪtʃə/

Noun

discomfiture (countable and uncountable, plural discomfitures)

1. (obsolete) Defeat in battle.
2. An emotional state similar to that arising from defeat; frustration, disappointment, perplexity or embarrassment.
   • 1866, Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War‎^[1], Supplement:

     Some of us are concerned because as yet the South shows no penitence. But what exactly do we mean by this? Since down to the close of the war she never confessed any for braving it, the only penitence now left her is that which springs solely from the sense of discomfiture; and since this evidently would be a contrition hypocritical, it would be unworthy in us to demand it.

   • 1952 April, “Notes and News: Petrol Railcars on the L.B.S.C.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 279:

     One of them ended its career as a passenger carrying vehicle in 1907, by freezing in Kemp Town Tunnel, to the discomfiture of some important season ticket holders, who did not hesitate to let the directors know what they thought about the incident.

   • 2023 October 22, Jason Burke, “The week the world tried to stop Gaza spinning out of control”, in The Observer‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Other countries are not so much angry as avid to exploit the discomfiture of the US or the chaos in the region or both.

Related terms

• discomfit

Translations

a feeling of frustration, disappointment, perplexity or embarrassment

• Bulgarian: объркване (bg) n (obǎrkvane), смущение (bg) n (smuštenie)
• German: Unbehagen (de) n, Peinlichkeit (de) f
• Maori: hūhi
• Norwegian: uro (no) n
• Romanian: jenă (ro) f, stinghereală (ro) f, stânjeneală (ro) f
• Russian: замеша́тельство (ru) n (zamešátelʹstvo), смуще́ние (ru) n (smuščénije), конфу́з (ru) m (konfúz)