Word for Wednesday: Disappoint

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Our Word for Wednesday theme for 2023 is tricky spelling words. This year, after sharing the definition and etymology of each week’s word, we will end every blog post with some tips and tricks to help you spell it.

Over April, we've looked at the words immediately, ceiling, and decide. Our final word of the month is disappoint. 

If something disappoints you, it means it fails to meet your hopes or expectations for it. 

Here is disappoint used in some example sentences: 

  • Don’t disappoint your proud papa!
  • I was disappointed when it rained on my birthday.
  • The team’s result was disappointing.

The word dates to the mid-fifteenth century and comes from ‘disappointen’ meaning ‘remove from appointed office’ (from the prefix ‘dis-’ meaning ‘reverse or opposite of’ and ‘appoint’). Learn more about prefixes in Spellzone Unit 23. Prefixes: when letters need changing or test yourself on dis- words. 

Disappoint has been used to describe the feeling induced when something fails to meet one's expectations or desires since the late-fifteenth century. 

To remember that disappoint has two Ps, say the following sentence to yourself: 'Don’t disappoint your proud papa!'

 


26 Apr 2023
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