discomfit

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>discomfit</strong> &#149; \diss-KUM-fit\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> to put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment <strong>:</strong> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disconcert">disconcert</a></p> <p><strong>2 a :</strong> to frustrate the plans of <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thwart">thwart</a></p> <p><strong>b</strong> <em>archaic</em> <strong>:</strong> to defeat in battle</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>Jacob was <em>discomfited</em> by the new employee's forward, probing questions.</p> <p>"Upon entering the theater, the audience is immediately <em>discomfited</em> by the set; it is a portrait of devastation. Aaron Benson’s scenic design is a beautiful and chaotic vision of decay: two towering tenements whose brick walls are stripped down to their wooden lath, with battered plaster that doubles as projection surfaces peeking between the bricks." — <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/03/marisol-at-cleveland-public-theatre-is-a-poetic-visit-to-a-parallel-universe.html">Andrea Simakis, <em>The Plain Dealer</em> (Cleveland, Ohio), 11 Mar. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Disconcerted by <em>discomfit</em> and <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discomfort">discomfort</a></em>? While the two look similar and share some semantic territory, they're etymologically unrelated. Unlike <em>discomfort</em>, <em>discomfit</em> has no connection to <em>comfort</em>, which comes ultimately from Latin <em>com-</em> plus <em>fortis</em>, meaning "strong." Instead, <em>discomfit</em> was borrowed from Anglo-French in the 13th century with the meaning "to defeat in battle." Within a couple centuries, <em>discomfit</em> had ex