WORD OF THE DAY: DEMEAN

What It Means

To demean someone or something is to cause that person or thing to seem less important or worthy of respect.

// By refusing to condemn the unlawful actions of her supporters, the governor demeaned the office she was elected to hold.

“Balding, bespectacled [Hubert] Eaton didn’t lack self-esteem. He went by the godlike nickname ‘the Builder,’ and in the early days of his cemetery, he crafted a mission statement that sounded more like a set of holy commandments than a business plan. He had the Builder’s Creed etched onto a giant stone tablet that still stands in front of the Great Mausoleum. The creed demeans traditional cemeteries as ‘unsightly stone-yards full of inartistic symbols and depressing customs’ and promises all who read it that the Builder will offer a better place for people to go after their deaths.” — Greg Melville, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Sept. 2022.

Did You Know?

There are two words spelled demean in English. One has a construction similar to its synonym, debase: where debase combines the prefix de- with an adjective base, meaning “low” or “vile,” demean applies de- to the adjective mean, meaning “inferior or contemptible.” The basic meaning the pair shares, “to lower in character or esteem,” is quite at odds with that of the other demean: “to conduct or behave oneself.” This demean comes from the Anglo-French verb demener (“to conduct”), and is generally used in formal contexts to specify a type of behavior, as in “he demeaned himself in a most unfriendly manner”; “she demeaned herself as befitting her station in life”; and “they knew not how to demean themselves in the king’s presence.” As such, it may be possible to demean someone for the way they demean themselves, though we assert that would be doubly mean.