different between affront vs distress

English

Etymology

From Middle English afrounten, from Old French afronter (“to defy”), from Vulgar Latin *affrontare (“to hit in the face”), from Latin ad (“to”) + fr?ns (“forehead”) (English front).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f??nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt

Verb

affront (third-person singular simple present affronts, present participle affronting, simple past and past participle affronted)

1. To insult intentionally, especially openly.
2. To meet defiantly; to confront.

   to affront death

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 436:

     Avignon was beginning to settle down for the night – that long painful stretch of time which must somehow be affronted.

3. (obsolete) To meet or encounter face to face.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:offend

Translations

Noun

affront (plural affronts)

1. An open or intentional offense, slight, or insult.
2. (obsolete) A hostile encounter or meeting.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:offense

Related terms

• effrontery

Translations

References

• “affront”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

French

Etymology

From Old French afront. Synchronically analysable as a deverbal of affronter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.f???/

Noun

affront m (plural affronts)

1. affront, insult, snub

Derived terms

• afront

Descendants

• ? Polish: afront
• ? Romanian: afront

Further reading

• “affront” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• offrant

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??fr?nt/

Verb

affront (third-person singular present affronts, present participle affrontin, past affrontit, past participle affrontit)

1. to affront; cause to feel ashamed; cause to blush; to humiliate (in front of others), to offend (not necessarily with intention)

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

English

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier (“to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress”); compare French détresse. Ultimately from Medieval Latin as if *districtiare, an assumed frequentative form of Latin distringere (“to pull asunder, stretch out”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”).

The noun is from Middle English distresse, from Old French destrece, ultimately also from Latin distringere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??st??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

distress (countable and uncountable, plural distresses)

1. (Cause of) discomfort.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
2. Serious danger.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
3. (medicine) An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.
4. (law) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
5. (law) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.

   • If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.

   • The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.

Derived terms

• distress signal

Antonyms

• (maladaptive stress): eustress

Related terms

• distrain
• district

Translations

Verb

distress (third-person singular simple present distresses, present participle distressing, simple past and past participle distressed)

1. To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

   Synonyms: anguish, harrow, trouble, vex, torment, tantalize, tantalise, martyr
2. (law) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.

   Synonym: distrain
3. To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age.

   Synonyms: age, antique, patinate

Translations

Further reading

• distress in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• distress in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• distress at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• disserts