different between yield vs condescend

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ji?ld/
• Rhymes: -i?ld

Etymology 1

From Middle English yielden, yelden, ?elden (“to yield, pay”), from Old English ?ieldan (“to pay”), from Proto-West Germanic *geldan, from Proto-Germanic *geldan? (“to pay”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?eld?- (“to pay”).

Verb

yield (third-person singular simple present yields, present participle yielding, simple past yielded or (obsolete) yold, past participle yielded or (obsolete) yolden)

1. (obsolete) To pay, give in payment; repay, recompense; reward; requite.
   • God yield thee, and God thank ye.

   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette

     The good mother holds me still a child! Good mother is bad mother unto me! A worse were better; yet no worse would I. Heaven yield her for it!

2. To furnish; to afford; to render; to give forth.
   • The wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.

3. To give way; to allow another to pass first.

   Yield the right of way to pedestrians.

4. To give as required; to surrender, relinquish or capitulate.

   They refuse to yield to the enemy.
5. To give, or give forth, (anything).
   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I scene ii^[1]:

     […] We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never / Yields us kind answer.

6. (intransitive) To give way; to succumb to a force.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, chapter 21:

     He turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield. We threw ourselves against it. With a crash it burst open, and we almost fell headlong into the room.

7. To produce as return, as from an investment.

   Historically, that security yields a high return.

8. (mathematics) To produce as a result.

   Adding 3 and 4 yields a result of 7.

9. (linguistics) To produce a particular sound as the result of a sound law.

   Indo-European p- yields Germanic f-.

10. (engineering, materials science, of a material specimen) To pass the material's yield point and undergo plastic deformation.
11. (rare) To admit to be true; to concede; to allow.

Synonyms

• submit - To fully surrender
• capitulate - To end all resistance, may imply a compensation with an enemy or to end all resistance because of loss of hope
• succumb - To fully surrender, because of helplessness and extreme weakness, to the leader of an opposing force
• relent - A yielding because of pity or mercy
• defer - A voluntary submitting out of respect, reverence or affection
• give way - To succumb to persistent persuasion.
• surrender - To give up into the power, control, or possession of another
• cede - To give up, give way, give away
• give up - To surrender
• produce - To make (a thing) available to a person, an authority, etc.
• bear - To produce something, such as fruit or crops
• supply - To provide (something), to make (something) available for use
• give in
• to trade away - to let others get hold of a property or right of yours.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English ?eld, from Old English ?ield, from Proto-West Germanic *geld, from Proto-Germanic *geld? (“reward, gift, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?eld?- (“to pay”).

Noun

yield (countable and uncountable, plural yields)

1. (obsolete) Payment; tribute.
2. A product; the quantity of something produced.

3. (law) The current return as a percentage of the price of a stock or bond.
4. (finance) Profit earned from an investment; return on investment.

Synonyms

• crop
• fruits
• gain
• harvest
• produce
• return

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Leidy, ylide

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.