discount

Etymology

Alteration of French descompte, décompte, from Old French disconter, desconter (“reckon off, account back, discount”), from Medieval Latin discomputō (“I deduct, discount”), from Latin dis- (“away”) + computō (“I reckon, count”). By surface analysis, dis- +‎ count.

Pronunciation

• Verb:
  • (in some senses) enPR: dĭskountʹ, IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkaʊnt/

    • Audio (Southern England):

      (file)

  • (in some senses) enPR: dĭsʹkount, IPA^(key): /ˈdɪskaʊnt/
• Noun and adjective:
  • enPR: dĭsʹkount, IPA^(key): /ˈdɪskaʊnt/

    • Audio (US):

      (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊnt

Verb

discount (third-person singular simple present discounts, present participle discounting, simple past and past participle discounted)

1. (transitive)
   2. To sell at a reduced price.

      Sales were slow even after the shop discounted the product.

   4. (rare) To deduct from an account, debt, charge, etc.

      Merchants sometimes discount five or six per cent for prompt payment of bills.

   6. To disregard an account or regard as unimportant.

      Owing to his reputation, they discounted his comments.

      • 1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

        Of the three opinions, (I discount Brown's), under this head, one supposes that the law of Causality is a positive affirmation, and a primary fact of thought, incapable of all further analysis.

   8. To lend money upon, deducting the discount or allowance for interest.

      The banks discount notes and bills of exchange.

      • 1692, William Walsh, Letter on the present state of the Currency of Great Britain:

        Discount only unexceptionable paper.

   10. To take into consideration beforehand; to anticipate and form conclusions concerning (an event).

       The market has dropped, discounting changes in interest rates.

2. (psychology, transactional analysis) To believe, or act as though one believes, that one's own feelings are more important than the reality of a situation.

Noun

discount (plural discounts)

1. A reduction in price.

   This store offers discounts on all its wares. That store specializes in discount wares, too.

2. (finance) A deduction made for interest, in advancing money upon, or purchasing, a bill or note not due; payment in advance of interest upon money.
3. The rate of interest charged in discounting.
4. (figurative) A lack or shortcoming.
   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

     On our approaching the house where the Misses Spenlow lived, I was at such a discount in respect of my personal looks and presence of mind, that Traddles proposed a gentle stimulant in the form of a glass of ale.

5. (psychology, transactional analysis) The act of one who believes, or act as though they believe, that their own feelings are more important than the reality of a situation.

Adjective

discount (not comparable)

1. (of a store) Specializing in selling goods at reduced prices.

   If you're looking for cheap clothes, there's a discount clothier around the corner.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “discount”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “discount”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “discount”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• conduits, ductions, noctuids

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English discount.

Noun

discount c (singular definite discounten, not used in plural form)

1. discount

   Coordinate terms: billig, lavpris

2. (figurative) low-quality, primitive, second-rate

References

• “discount” in Den Danske Ordbog

Adjective

discount (invariable)

1. discount

Noun

discount m (plural discounts)

1. discount

Further reading

• “discount”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Etymology

Pseudo-anglicism, a shortening of English discount store.

Noun

discount m (invariable)

1. discount store

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English discount.

Noun

discount n (plural discounturi)

1. discount