CONDESCEND

patronize, patronise, condescend

(verb) treat condescendingly

condescend, deign, descend

(verb) do something that one considers to be below one’s dignity

condescend

(verb) behave in a patronizing and condescending manner

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Verb

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

(intransitive) To come down from one's superior position; to deign (to do something).

(intransitive) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing (toward someone); to talk down (to someone).

(transitive, rare, possibly, nonstandard) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing toward (someone); to talk down to (someone).

(intransitive, obsolete) To consent, agree.

(intransitive, obsolete) To come down.

Usage notes

• "Condescend" is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See 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 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

Source: Wiktionary

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Con`de*scend", v. i. [imp. & p. p. Condescended; p. pr. & vb. n. Condescending.] Etym: [F. condescendre, LL. condescendere, fr. L. con- + descendere. See Descend.]

1. To stoop or descend; to let one's self down; to submit; to waive the privilege of rank or dignity; to accommodate one's self to an inferior. "Condescend to men of low estate." Rom. xii. 16. Can they think me so broken, so debased With corporal servitude, that my mind ever Will condescend to such absurd commands Milton. Spain's mighty monarch, In gracious clemency, does condescend, On these conditions, to become your friend. Dryden.

Note: Often used ironically, implying an assumption of superiority. Those who thought they were honoring me by condescending to address a few words to me. F. W. Robinson.

2. To consent. [Obs.] All parties willingly condescended heruento. R. Carew.

Syn.

– To yield; stoop; descend; deign; vouchsafe.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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