"contemptuous, scornful, haughty," 1540s, from disdain (n.) + -ful. Earlier was disdainous (late 14c.). Sometimes in early Modern English shortened to sdainful. Related: Disdainfully; disdainfulness.
Entries linking to disdainful
disdain n.
mid-14c., desdeyn "scorn, a feeling of contempt mingled with aversion," earlier dedeyne (c. 1300), from Old French desdeigne(Modern French dédain), from desdeignier (see disdain (v.)). Sometimes in early Modern English shortened to sdain.
-ful
word-forming element attached to nouns (and in modern English to verb stems) and meaning "full of, having, characterized by," also "amount or volume contained" (handful, bellyful); from Old English -full, -ful, which is full (adj.) become a suffix by being coalesced with a preceding noun, but originally a separate word. Cognate with German -voll, Old Norse -fullr, Danish -fuld. Most English -ful adjectives at one time or another had both passive ("full of x") and active ("causing x; full of occasion for x") senses.
It is rare in Old English and Middle English, where full was much more commonly attached at the head of a word (for example Old English fulbrecan "to violate," fulslean "to kill outright," fulripod "mature;" Middle English had ful-comen "attain (a state), realize (a truth)," ful-lasting "durability," ful-thriven "complete, perfect," etc.).
