Crossword Dictionary
DISHEARTEN
dishearten, put off - v
take away the enthusiasm of
Synonyms
chill, daunt, demoralize, discourage, dismay, dispirit, frustrate, unman, unnerve
Examples
I hope you will not feel too disheartened by some of the comments.
He was harassed with debt and at times so disheartened that he contemplated retirement from public life.
He was disheartened that Dean had no intention of running over to the crime scene, where Dean had no business whatsoever.
Etymology
"discourage, deject, depress the spirits of," 1590s (first recorded in "Henry V"), from dis- "the opposite of" + hearten. Related: Disheartened; disheartening; dishearteningly.
dis-
word-forming element of Latin origin meaning 1. "lack of, not" (as in dishonest); 2. "opposite of, do the opposite of" (as in disallow); 3. "apart, away" (as in discard), from Old French des- or directly from Latin dis- "apart, asunder, in a different direction, between," figuratively "not, un-," also "exceedingly, utterly." Assimilated as dif- before -f- and to di- before most voiced consonants.
hearten (v.)
1520s, "put heart into" (transitive), from heart (n.) in the figurative sense + -en (1). Intransitive sense "to cheer up" is from 1708. Related: Heartened; heartening. Earlier verb was simply heart (Old English).