different between privilege vs condescend

English

Alternative forms

• priviledg, priviledge (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English privilege, from Anglo-Norman privilege and Old French privilege, from Latin pr?vil?gium (“ordinance or law against or in favor of an individual”), from pr?vus (“private”) + l?x, l?g- (“law”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??v(?)l?d?/
• Hyphenation: priv?i?lege, privi?lege

Noun

privilege (countable and uncountable, plural privileges)

1. (ecclesiastical law, now chiefly historical) An exemption from certain laws granted by the Pope. [from 8th c.]
2. (countable) A particular benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or immunity enjoyed by some but not others; a prerogative, preferential treatment. [from 10th c.]

   Synonyms: franchise, freelage, immunity, prerogative, right

3. An especially rare or fortunate opportunity; the good fortune (to do something). [from 14th c.]
   • 2012, The Observer, letter, 29 April:

     I had the privilege to sit near him in the House for a small part of his Commons service and there was an additional device provided to aid his participation in debates.

4. (uncountable) The fact of being privileged; the status or existence of (now especially social or economic) benefit or advantage within a given society. [from 14th c.]

   Synonyms: advantage, foredeal

   • c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, Melibeus:

     He is worthy to lesen his priuilege that mysvseth the myght and the power that is yeuen hym.

   • 2013, The Guardian, 21 Oct, (headline):

     South Africa's 'miracle transition' has not put an end to white privilege.

5. A right or immunity enjoyed by a legislative body or its members. [from 16th c.]

   Synonym: immunity

   • 2001, The Guardian, leader, 1 May:

     Dr Grigori Loutchansky is – according to a congressman speaking under congressional privilege – a "purported Russian mob figure".

6. (countable, US, finance, now rare) A stock market option. [from 19th c.]
7. (law) A common law doctrine that protects certain communications from being used as evidence in court.

8. (computing) An ability to perform an action on the system that can be selectively granted or denied to users.

   Synonym: permission

Synonyms

• claim, liberty

Derived terms

• cisprivilege

Translations

Verb

privilege (third-person singular simple present privileges, present participle privileging, simple past and past participle privileged)

1. (archaic) To grant some particular right or exemption to; to invest with a peculiar right or immunity; to authorize

2. (archaic) To bring or put into a condition of privilege or exemption from evil or danger; to exempt; to deliver.

Related terms

• allege

Translations

References

• privilege at OneLook Dictionary Search
• privilege in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• privilege in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Old French

Noun

privilege m (oblique plural privileges, nominative singular privileges, nominative plural privilege)

1. privilege (benefit only given to certain people)

Descendants

• ? English: privilege
• Middle French: privilege
  • French: privilège

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (privilege, supplement)

English

Etymology

From Middle English condescenden, from Old French condescendre, from Late Latin cond?scendere (“to let one's self down, stoop, condescend”), from Latin con- (“together”) + d?scendere, present active infinitive of d?scend? (“I come down”); see descend.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?nd??s?nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k??nd??s?nd/

Verb

condescend (third-person singular simple present condescends, present participle condescending, simple past and past participle condescended)

1. (intransitive) To come down from one's superior position; to deign (to do something).
   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, act 1, scene 2:

     Spain's mighty monarch […] / In gracious clemency, does condescend / On these conditions, to become your friend.
2. (intransitive) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing (toward someone); to talk down (to someone).
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 14:

     I admire that admiration which the genteel world sometimes extends to the commonalty. There is no more agreeable object in life than to see Mayfair folks condescending.

   • At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy?; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.

3. (transitive, rare, possibly nonstandard) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing toward (someone); to talk down to (someone).
   • ANDIE. I wasn't condescending you; I was just asking.

     THOMAS. No. You said “angry black man.” Like my anger only exists in a stereotype. That's condescending.

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To consent, agree.
   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes, lines 1134-36:

     Can they think me so broken, so debased / With corporal servitude, that my mind ever / Will condescend to such absurd commands?
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To come down.

Usage notes

• "Condescend" is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
• In sense “to talk down”, the derived participial adjective condescending (and corresponding adverb condescendingly) are more common than the verb itself.
• In older usage, "condescend" could be used non-pejoratively (in a sense similar to that of treating someone as inferior) to describe the action of those who socialized in a friendly way with their social inferiors. Now that the concept of social inferiors has largely fallen out of currency, so has this non-pejorative sense. Thus, in w:Pride_and_Prejudice, a character could say of another, "I need not say you will be delighted with her. She is all affability and condescension.”

Synonyms

• (come down from superior position): acquiesce, deign, stoop, vouchsafe
• (talk down, treat as inferior): patronize, belittle, put on airs
• (consent): yield
• (come down): descend

Related terms

• condescendence
• condescend upon
• condescension
• descend

Translations

Further reading

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