Etymology

displeasing

D2I1S1P3L1E1A1S1I1N1G2

Today it means: Unattractive, dislikable, objectionable. Full definition →

Old French desplaisant
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Old French · derived fromdesplaisant
  2. English todaydispleasing

Perhaps a calque of Old French desplaisant, from the verb desplere (“to displease”). By surface analysis, dis- + pleasing.

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchdesplaisant all →

displeasant

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.