What's The Word: Disappoint | Approve X Disapprove | Appoint X... Disappoint | N18S

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Disappointment. It's that sad feeling you get when something you hoped for doesn't happen. But in the early 1400s, disappointment was not an emotion. It was a harsh reality. It meant that someone got fired. Here's how things changed. The core word appoint comes from the old Latin word ad punctum, meaning to bring things to a point. It meant to agree on, to arrange, or to prepare for something. The prefix dis means to undo. So, adding dis to the word gave you the opposite, like agree, disagree, appear, disappear, and so on and so forth. Appoint entered Anglo-French in the late 14th century as appointer. It was used when the king gave someone a position of authority.

[00:00:40]Naturally, appointments were a happy opportunity. They meant a chance to grow wealth and respect and power. So, if that official then displeased the crown or failed in their duties, they were fired. The king would disappoint [music] them. And these people would end up losing that wealth and power. Not a happy place to be in. Now, in old Latin, punctum meant a point in time and a point in space. So, any official meeting arranged with these appointees was called an appointment. And if these officials canceled or ghosted you, it was called a disappointment. Again, not the happiest [music] of circumstances.

[00:01:14]So, both appointment and disappointment had two aspects. There was an aspect related to the action and one related to the emotion. Over the years in usage, appoint and appointment have shed the emotional aspect completely. They've become almost clinical and refer [music] to just the activity or event, like the appointment of a judge or an appointment with a doctor. But the exact opposite has happened with disappoint and disappointment. These deal only with the emotions associated with that action, the absence of contentment or the sadness at the failure to meet expectations. And that's how a word about losing a job became a word about losing hope.