different between vouchsafe vs condescend

English

Etymology

vouch +? safe, written as two words in Middle English and early Modern English.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?va?t??se?f/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [?v??t??se?f]
• Rhymes: -e?f
• Hyphenation: vouch?safe

Verb

vouchsafe (third-person singular simple present vouchsafes, present participle vouchsafing, simple past and past participle vouchsafed)

1. To graciously give, to condescendingly grant a right, benefit, outcome, etc.; to deign to acknowledge.
2. To receive or accept in condescension.
   • 1913 Eleanor Porter: Pollyanna: Chapter 8:

     Nancy's lips parted abruptly, as if there were angry words all ready to come; but her eyes, resting on Pollyanna's jubilantly trustful face, saw something that prevented the words being spoken.
     "Humph!" she vouchsafed. Then, showing her old-time interest, she went on: "But, say, it is queer, his speakin' to you, honestly, Miss Pollyanna. He don't speak ter no one; and he lives all alone in a great big lovely house all full of jest grand things, they say. Some says he's crazy, and some jest cross; and some says he's got a skeleton in his closet."

3. To disclose or divulge.

   She vouchsafed to me that she regretted ever marrying him.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:vouchsafe.

Synonyms

• deign

Related terms

• vouchsafement
• vouchsafing

Translations

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.