Disencourage

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Making someone less eager or willing to do something by reducing their confidence or enthusiasm for it
2. Causing a person to lose the courage, hope or motivation needed to pursue an action or goal
3. Deterring someone from an activity by dampening their zeal or persuading them against it

Etymology: "Disencourage" is a rare, plain formation: the prefix "dis-", meaning "apart" or "reversing an action," attached to "encourage." "Encourage" itself comes from Old French "encorager," built from "en-" ("to make") and "corage" ("courage," from Latin "cor," heart). So to encourage someone is literally to put heart into them, and the prefix turns that around to mean taking heart away. The prefix does the work here. "Dis-" is the same element found in "disallow," "dislike," and "disconnect," and English speakers have long attached it to verbs to express reversal. "Disencourage" is one of the less common examples of this pattern, sitting beside the more familiar "discourage," which comes from the same Old French root but with a different prefix history.