"scorn" meaning in Middle English

See scorn in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /skɔːrn/, /skɔrn/, /ʃɔːrn/, /ʃɔrn/, /skɑːrn/, /ʃɑːrn/ [Early-Middle-English]
Etymology: From earlier scarn, scharn, borrowed from Old Northern French escarn and central Old French escharn, from Late Latin *scarnium. For the vocalism in -o-, see scornen (“to scorn”). Etymology templates: {{bor+|enm|fro-nor|escarn|nocap=1}} borrowed from Old Northern French escarn, {{der|enm|fro|escharn}} Old French escharn, {{der|enm|la-lat|*scarnium}} Late Latin *scarnium Head templates: {{head|enm|noun|g=|g2=|g3=|head=|sort=}} scorn, {{enm-noun|-}} scorn (uncountable) Forms: schoren [alternative], schorn [alternative], skorn [alternative], scarn [alternative, Early-Middle-English], scharn [alternative, Early-Middle-English], skarn [alternative, Early-Middle-English], skoarn [alternative, Early-Middle-English], scoorn [alternative, Late-Middle-English], scorne [alternative, Late-Middle-English], schorne [alternative, Late-Middle-English], sckorn [alternative, Late-Middle-English], skorne [alternative, Late-Middle-English]
  1. Scorn, contempt; the feeling that something is beneath oneself. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-scorn-enm-noun-MyYTg2NZ Categories (other): English links with manual fragments, Human behaviour Disambiguation of Human behaviour: 72 14 10 4
  2. Abuse, humiliation, derision; scornful treatment. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-scorn-enm-noun-sxtqunad
  3. An insult; a derisory or contemptuous statement, action, or thing. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-scorn-enm-noun-151T34Qs
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: scornen, scornere, scornful
Etymology number: 1 Categories (other): Hatred Disambiguation of Hatred: 0 0 0 0

Verb

Head templates: {{head|enm|verb|altform=1}} scorn
  1. (Late Middle English or Northern) alternative form of scornen Tags: Late-Middle-English, Northern, alt-of, alternative Alternative form of: scornen
    Sense id: en-scorn-enm-verb-3ID4tm9G Categories (other): Late Middle English, Northern Middle English, Middle English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of Middle English entries with incorrect language header: 22 13 24 40
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2 Categories (other): Hatred Disambiguation of Hatred: 0 0 0 0

Alternative forms

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          "thing",
          "thing"
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      "ipa": "/skɔːrn/"
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    {
      "ipa": "/skɔrn/"
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    {
      "ipa": "/ʃɔːrn/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ʃɔrn/"
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      "ipa": "/skɑːrn/"
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    {
      "ipa": "/ʃɑːrn/",
      "tags": [
        "Early-Middle-English"
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        "Scorn, contempt; the feeling that something is beneath oneself."
      ],
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        [
          "Scorn",
          "scorn#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "contempt",
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        [
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        [
          "oneself",
          "oneself"
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    },
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      "glosses": [
        "Abuse, humiliation, derision; scornful treatment."
      ],
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          "humiliation",
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        [
          "scornful",
          "scornful"
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          "thing",
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  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/skɔːrn/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/skɔrn/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ʃɔːrn/"
    },
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      "ipa": "/ʃɔrn/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/skɑːrn/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ʃɑːrn/",
      "tags": [
        "Early-Middle-English"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "scorn"
}

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        "Northern",
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    }
  ],
  "word": "scorn"
}

Download raw JSONL data for scorn meaning in Middle English (4.3kB)

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  "subsection": "",
  "title": "scorn",
  "trace": "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html lang=\"en\">\n<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n<title>Wikimedia Error</title>\n<style>\n* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }\nbody { background: #fff; font: 15px/1.6 sans-serif; color: #333; }\n.content { margin: 7% auto 0; padding: 2em 1em 1em; max-width: 640px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-wrap: wrap; }\n.footer { clear: both; margin-top: 14%; border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5; background: #f9f9f9; padding: 2em 0; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center; }\nimg { margin: 0 2em 2em 0; }\na img { border: 0; }\nh1 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; }\n.content-text { flex: 1; }\np { margin: 0.7em 0 1em 0; }\na { color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none; }\na:hover { text-decoration: underline; }\ncode { font-family: sans-serif; }\nsummary { font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; }\ndetails[open] { background: #970302; color: #dfdedd; }\n.text-muted { color: #777; }\n@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {\n  a { color: #9e9eff; }\n  body { background: transparent; color: #ddd; }\n  .footer { border-top: 1px solid #444; background: #060606; }\n  #logo { filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg); }\n  .text-muted { color: #888; }\n}\n</style>\n<meta name=\"color-scheme\" content=\"light dark\">\n<div class=\"content\" role=\"main\">\n<a href=\"https://www.wikimedia.org\"><img id=\"logo\" src=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo.png\" srcset=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo-2x.png 2x\" alt=\"Wikimedia\" width=\"135\" height=\"101\">\n</a>\n<div class=\"content-text\">\n<h1>Error</h1>\n\n<p>Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81)</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"footer\"><p>If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below.</p><p class=\"text-muted\"><code>Request served via cp3073 cp3073, Varnish XID 23256886<br>Upstream caches: cp3073 int<br>Error: 429, Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81) at Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:16:31 GMT<br><details><summary>Sensitive client information</summary>IP address: 91.207.79.37</details></code></p>\n</div>\n</html>\n"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Middle English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.