Etymology

dishonest

dis·on·est
D2I1S1H4O1N1E1S1T1

Today it means: Not honest; shoddy. Full definition →

Middle English dishoneste ← Old French deshoneste ← Latin dehonestus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromdehonestus
  2. Old French · derived fromdeshoneste
  3. Middle English · inherited fromdishoneste“dishonourable”
  4. English todaydishonest

From Middle English dishoneste (“dishonourable”), from Old French deshoneste, from Latin dehonestus. Equivalent to dis- + honest. Displaced native Old English unsōþfæst.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishdishoneste all →

dishonesty

Old Frenchdeshoneste all →

dishonesty

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.