scornen – Middle English verb conjugation

Infinitive

scornen; to scornen; scorne

Participles

Present	scornende; scornynge
Past	scorned; yscorned

Indicative

Subjunctive

Imperative

Singular	scorne
Plural	scorneth; scorne

Verbs conjugated like scornen

synnen, syften, serven, snoren, snesen, sighen, skewen, wondren, symulen, blosmen, blissen, suffisen, blessen, damagen, daunten, dauncen, gamenen, plukken, wratthen, snarken, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)

Etymology

1. Borrowed from Old Northern French escarnir and central Old French escharnir, from Late Latin *scarnīre, *scernīre, of disputed origin. Derivation or influence from Old French or Middle French escornir (“to dehorn”, figuratively "to abase") is unlikely since that verb's figurative senses appear significantly later than scornen while failing to entirely approach its semantics. Compare scurnen.
2. Notes on vocalism
3. While the vocalism in -o- has been considered "not easy to account for", "not satisfyingly explained", and "obscure", it is probably because the word was borrowed with medial /-ɑːrn-/ (as implied by Orm's skarnenn and early forms of the noun scorn with -a-) before the Early Middle English raising of /ɑː/ to /ɔː/ and then participated in it when it occurred. Early Modern orthoepists usually give the reflex of Middle English short /ɔ/ in this word, but that could be from later shortening before /rn/ or due to the analogy of scornere (with trisyllabic shortening) or scornful(ly) (with shortening before three consecutive consonants); similarly, Northern Middle English (and thus Scots and modern Northern English dialectal) forms with -o- can be explained as borrowings from more southerly dialects. In any case, the existence of pronunciations with /ɔː/ is confirmed by the form scoarnes in the Ancrene Wisse.

Verbs referencing "scornen"

English scorn.

Sample Sentences

Cognates

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