demean

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈmiːn/
• Rhymes: -iːn

(1595) From de- +‎ mean (“lowly, base, common”), from Middle English mene, aphetic variation of imene (“mean, base, common”), from Old English ġemǣne (“mean, common”). Compare English bemean.

demean (third-person singular simple present demeans, present participle demeaning, simple past and past participle demeaned)

1. To debase; to lower; to degrade.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 6:

     It was, of course, Mrs. Sedley's opinion that her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.

2. To humble, humble oneself; to humiliate.
3. To mortify.

• debase
• lower
• degrade

From Middle English demenen, demeinen, from Anglo-Norman demener, from Old French demener, from de- + mener (“to conduct, lead”), from Vulgar Latin *mināre (“to drive”) and Latin minārī (“to threaten”).

demean (third-person singular simple present demeans, present participle demeaning, simple past and past participle demeaned)

1. To manage; to conduct; to treat.
   • (Can we date this quote by Milton?)

     [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.

2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iv]:

     they have demean'd themselves
     Like men born to renown by life or death.

   • (Can we date this quote by Clarendon?)

     They answered […] that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.

demean (usually uncountable, plural demeans)

1. (archaic) Management; treatment.
   • (Can we date this quote by Spenser?)

     vile demean and usage bad

2. (archaic) Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.5:

     ‘When thou hast all this doen, then bring me newes / Of his demeane […].’

   • (Can we date this quote by West?)

     with grave demean and solemn vanity

• demeanor

Variant of demesne.

demean (plural demeans)

1. demesne.
2. resources; means.

• Medean, Nadeem, amende, amened, dename, meaned