different between appoint vs disappoint

English

Etymology

From Middle English apointen, borrowed from Old French apointier (“to prepare, arrange, lean, place”) (French appointer (“to give a salary, refer a cause”)), from Late Latin appunctare (“to bring back to the point, restore, to fix the point in a controversy, or the points in an agreement”); Latin ad + punctum (“a point”). See point.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??p??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• Hyphenation: ap?point

Verb

appoint (third-person singular simple present appoints, present participle appointing, simple past and past participle appointed)

1. (transitive) To set, fix or determine (a time or place for something such as a meeting, or the meeting itself) by authority or agreement.
   • 1820, The Edinburgh Annual Register:

     His Royal Highness called to pay his respects to her Majesty; but, from the unexpected nature of his visit, her Majesty was not in a state then to receive him; but soon after sent a letter to Prince Leopold, to appoint one o'clock this day for an interview.

   • 2014 November 8, Ivan Hewett, Art on demand makes emperors of us all, in The Telegraph:

     We have to wait until they're ready to receive us, and make sure we turn up at the appointed time.

2. (transitive) To name (someone to a post or role).

   • Aaron and his shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service.

   • 2014 November 3, Fredric U. Dicker, Cuomo appointed 'vote or else' strategist, in the New York Post:

     Neal Kwatra, appointed by Cuomo to be the state Democratic Party's chief campaign strategist, was identified by two key Democratic insiders[...]

3. (transitive) To furnish or equip (a place) completely; to provide with all the equipment or furnishings necessary; to fit out.
   • 2009, Donald Olson, Germany for Dummies:

     The hotel is beautifully designed and beautifully appointed in a classic, modern style that manages to be both serene and luxurious at the same time.

4. (transitive) To equip (someone) with (something); to assign (someone) authoritatively (some equipment).
5. (transitive, law) To fix the disposition of (property) by designating someone to take use of (it).
   • 1828–29 (case decided), published in 1843, in the Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Chancery:

     If the donee of a power appoint the fund to one of the objects of the power, under an understanding that the latter is to lend the fund to tho former, although on good security, the appointment is bad.

6. (obsolete, transitive) To fix with power or firmness by decree or command; to ordain or establish.

   • When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

   • Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint.

7. (obsolete, intransitive) To resolve; to determine; to ordain.

   • For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel.

   • 1823 December 13, a record quoted in The Christian Library: A Reprint of Popular Religious Works (Richard Watson, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Raffles, etc; 1836):

     The day being very stormy, we were obliged to keep at home; which I much regretted, as it abridged my opportunity of seeing the Jewish synagogues, as we had appointed to do to-day.

   • 1833, The Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. Matthew Henry:

     He had preached twice on the Lord's day, he preached also on Monday, and had appointed to do the same on Tuesday, but died that morning.

   • 1848, Anthony Trollope, The Kellys and the O'Kellys ?ISBN, page 251:

     On the following morning Lord Ballindine[,] as he had appointed to do, drove over to Dunmore, to settle with Martin about the money, and, if necessary, to go with him to the attorney's office in Tuam.

Derived terms

Related terms

• point

Translations

Further reading

• appoint at OneLook Dictionary Search
• appoint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• antipop, apoptin

French

Etymology

Deverbal of appointer. from Old French apoint (“favorable occasion; resolution, agreement”), from Old French apointier (“to work out, solve”), from Late Latin appunctare (“to bring back to the point, restore, to fix the point in a controversy, or the points in an agreement”); Latin ad + punctum (“a point”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.pw??/

Noun

appoint m (plural appoints)

1. an amount of small change

2. money which completes a payment, balances an account
3. (figuratively) complementary support

Derived terms

• faire l'appoint
• câbles d’appoint
• carburant d'appoint
• lit d'appoint
• propulseur d'appoint
• pièce d’appoint

Further reading

• “appoint” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Middle French desapointer (compare French désappointer).

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Whence the adjective?”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d?s??p??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt

Verb

disappoint (third-person singular simple present disappoints, present participle disappointing, simple past and past participle disappointed)

1. (transitive) To sadden or displease (someone) by underperforming, or by not delivering something promised or hoped for.
   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, London: T. Egerton, Volume 2, Chapter 1, p. 12,^[1]

     Here are officers enough at Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country.

   • 2007, Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying, New York: Knopf, Part 2, “Transition,”^[2]

     My father liked his rice light and fluffy, but separate. […] Since he’d gone so long without a taste, the possibility of disappointing him weighed heavily on my mother.

2. (transitive) To deprive (someone of something expected or hoped for).
   • 1574, Arthur Golding (translator), Sermons of Master John Calvin, upon the Booke of Job, London: Lucas Harison and George Byshop, Sermon 32, p. 163,^[3]

     They that haue money in their purse, are afrayde and in doubte, yea and are continuallye martyred with feare, leaste GOD should disappoint them of their pray, and abate their portion.

   • 1637, Thomas Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, Act V, Scene 4, in Comedies and Tragedies, London: Henry Herringman, 1664, p. 152,^[4]

     Bless me from an old waiting-womans wrath; she’l never forgive me the disappointing her of a promise when I was drunk;

   • 1707, extract from Lord Caryll’s letters, in James Macpherson (ed.), Original Papers: containing the secret history of Great Britain, from the restoration, to the accession of the House of Hannover, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1775, Volume 2, p. 86,^[5]

     You tell me, that the hasty departure of Mr. Rysehoven [Marlborough] out of town disappointed you of speaking to him, of which the loss, I think, is not very great;

   • 1758, Charlotte Lennox, Henrietta, London: A. Millar, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 8, p. 178,^[6]

     Miss Courteney […] sat down again, tho’ with some reluctance, telling his lordship that she would not be the means of disappointing him of his coffee; but that she must insist upon being permitted to withdraw in half an hour, having business of consequence upon her hands.

   • 1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, London: Chappell, Act II, p. 32,^[7]

     […] you shan’t be disappointed of a wedding—you shall come to mine.

   • 2000, Alan Bennett, “The Laying On of Hands” in The Laying On of Hands: Stories, New York: Picador, 2002, p. 94,^[8]

     Disappointed of immediate promotion he was now more … well, relaxed […]

3. (transitive, dated) To fail to meet (an expectation); to fail to fulfil (a hope).
   • 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 127, 4 June, 1751, Volume 4, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, pp. 240-241,^[9]

     It is not uncommon for those who at their first entrance into the world were distinguished for eminent attainments or superior abilities, to disappoint the hopes which they had raised, and to end in neglect and obscurity that life which they began in celebrity and honour.

   • 1769, Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of an Atom, London: Robinson and Roberts, Volume 2, pp. 165-166,^[10]

     […] his life was despaired of; and all Japan was filled with alarm and apprehension at the prospect of an infant’s ascending the throne: […] Their fears, however, were happily disappointed by the recovery of the emperor,

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 3, Chapter 5, p. 122,^[11]

     “But perhaps your accommodations—your cottage—your furniture—have disappointed your expectations?”

   • 1871, Louisa May Alcott, Little Men, Boston: Roberts Brothers, Chapter 6, p. 90,^[12]

     The boy’s confidence in her hospitality touched Mrs. Bhaer, and she could not find the heart to disappoint his hope, and spoil his kind little plan […]

   • 1923, John Maynard Keynes, “Social Consequences of Changes in the Value of Money” in Essays in Persuasion, London: Macmillan, 1933, pp. 80-81,^[13]

     […] a change in prices and rewards, as measured in money, generally affects different classes unequally […] and redistributes Fortune’s favours so as to frustrate design and disappoint expectation.

4. (transitive, dated) To show (an opinion, belief, etc.) to be mistaken.
   • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, London: T. Egerton, Volume 3, Chapter 1, p. 6,^[14]

     I am sure you will not disappoint my opinion of you, by failing at any time to treat your aunt Norris with the respect and attention that are due to her.

   • 1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, Boston: L. C. Page, Chapter 14, p. 150,^[15]

     “Well, I thought it was too good to be true,” he said at last, with a sigh of disappointed conviction.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To prevent (something planned or attempted).

   Synonyms: frustrate, thwart

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Job 5.12,^[16]

     He [God] disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

   • 1716, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad: of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 2, Book 7, p. 201,^[17]

     The wary Trojan shrinks, and bending low

     Beneath his Buckler, disappoints the Blow.

   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, London: Ward, Lock, Introduction, p. xxii,^[18]

     But heavy rains, the difficulties of the country, and the good intelligence which the outlaw was always supplied with, disappointed their well-concerted combination.

Antonyms

• satisfy

Derived terms

• disappointed adjective
• disappointing adjective
• disappointer noun
• disappointment noun

Translations

Adjective

disappoint (comparative more disappoint, superlative most disappoint)

1. (Internet slang) disappointed