dis

or diss

(dis)

verb tr.
To show disrespect for.

Etymology
Of uncertain origin, apparently a shortening of disrespect.

Usage
"Lumka cringes when she realises the customer she dissed is in fact Karabo, the owner of the bar and her employer." — On The Small Screen; Post (South Africa); Jun 2, 2004.

"After dissing the victims, Jerry Sensitive led the regents in a ringing defense of the four CU officials whose lax supervision may have contributed to the scandal." — Bob Ewegen; 'Dear Old Sleaze U'; Denver Post (Colorado); May 22, 2004.

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(Data Instrumentation Systems) See DST.

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Origin: 1986

Since English was first spoken in North America, dis has covered a lot of distance. Our discussions since those times have included many disagreements, disputes, disappointments, and disasters. There was much disillusion, discouragement, and distress. We have often had discontented dissidents promoting disorder and disunion. On the whole, dis has been a dismal prefix.

But none of these words earned the distinction of being recognized just by its first syllable until the most respectful of all came along, the dis of disrespect. In the 1980s, African-American performers gradually brought this dis to everyone's attention in a new style of music they called rap (1976), featuring rapid rhyming talk. Along with break dancing (1983), rap music was part of the hip-hop (1983) urban culture these entertainers introduced, which was well-publicized by 1986. A well-known rap by the group Public Enemy in 1987 declared, "A magazine or two is dissin' me and dissin' you."

Thanks to the First Amendment to the Constitution, open disrespect has been a permanent feature of American political discussion, so the simple insulting syllable dis was quickly picked up by politicians and commentators of all sorts. "Are you dissing me?" is a way for a recipient of disrespect to respond in the same dissing style as the disser, avoiding the unsuitably formal "Are you showing disrespect for me?" With such disparate usefulness, dis has remained a vigorous element of our discourse.

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