What's the difference between condescension and contempt?

Condescension


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of condescending; voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in intercourse with an inferior; courtesy toward inferiors.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the effects of Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect on evoking upset in spouses through condescension (e.g., treating spouse as stupid or inferior), possessiveness (demanding too much time and attention), abuse (slapping spouse), unfaithfulness (having sex with others), inconsiderateness (leaving toilet seat up), moodiness (crying a lot), alcohol abuse (drinking too much alcohol), emotional constriction (hiding emotions to act tough), and self-centeredness (acting selfishly).
  • (2) The debate highlighted almost all of Obama's worst qualities: he seemed bored to the point of condescension, particular to the point of testiness, and proved for the hundredth or so time that he is Worst.
  • (3) They are Americans, and they deserve your respect.” The chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Reince Priebus, echoed Pence in a statement, saying: “The truly deplorable thing in this race is the shameful level of condescension and disrespect Hillary Clinton is showing to her fellow citizens.” Trump, per his habit, initially responded on Twitter .
  • (4) But so far, I perceive a threatening mix of arrogance, self-infatuation and condescension.” It is tempting to see Podemos as a well-planned operation by a group of talented academics, following a populist script written by a line of radical thinkers, but that would be too simple.
  • (5) Not just because of her sheer endurance i n a nearly 11-hour filibuster, not just because she stood up to condescension and sexism, and not just because she did it all with aplomb and grace.
  • (6) In both cases it comes with great lashes of condescension and a lack of knowledge about the countries one is imposing on.
  • (7) For every cockle-warming group hug, there's Tambor, spewing bile and condescension; for every small child bursting winsomely into song, there he is again, a snout-nosed vision of pompous self-delusion.
  • (8) The condescension is reminiscent of the musings of Ignatius J Reilly, the hapless protagonist of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, regarding African Americans apparent conservatism.
  • (9) It is suffused with a defiant positivity that shatters any notion of condescension towards disabled competitors.
  • (10) For much of a career spanning more than 60 years, the writer Elizabeth Jane Howard , who has died aged 90, suffered a certain condescension from literary editors as a writer of "women's novels".
  • (11) A mournful waltz written from the perspective of a bereaved mother, it’s an anti-war pop song that successfully treads the line between compassion and condescension.
  • (12) Russia supports Assad not primarily as a political friend and ally – the chill and condescension in Putin’s demeanour during Assad’s flying visit to Moscow last October should have given the lie to that – but because, in the view of Putin and his advisers, Assad is all that stands between Syria and chaos.
  • (13) He was much later described by his housemaster with wonderful condescension as "a model boy, though quite undistinguished".
  • (14) His condescension is metered, however; the softer the voice and the more words delivered per minute, the greater his levels of scorn.
  • (15) In addition to standard college newspaper fare – an essay about town-gown relations in which Miller details the “ condescension ” inherent in giving a janitor a birthday card – Miller’s 25 columns, written between September 2005 and April 2007, frequently touch on hot-button issues.
  • (16) His review is so much fun, it's worth quoting more: "V For Vendetta is such an odd mixture: partly naive post-punk posturing, betraying the original's 1981 origins, and partly well-meant (but very American) condescension towards London and Britain.
  • (17) Americans don't have passports, we don't meet many foreigners, and we think proper English diction is an indicator of condescension or homosexuality.
  • (18) Yet, to judge by his recent rant in the Daily Mail against "Marxist" professors, his head-butting with the unions and his condescension on Question Time to the shadow attorney general, he clearly revels in letting off fusillades against anyone who disagrees with him on education.
  • (19) I tell him that I always associated those protests, indeed that time, with political failure, remembering above all the muddle, the lack of a programme, the big, angry “no” to globalisation giving way to a surrendered, “Well, ok then, so long as you promise that corporate capture won’t kill anybody (that I know).” Iglesias disagrees entirely, which is unlike him – his preferred conversational mode is to respond to every question with “exactly” or “absolutely”, a sort of emollient, un-left-ish manner with maybe the faintest whiff of condescension.
  • (20) Just as storied designated players swiftly find that when the initial burst of selfies and ad campaigns runs out, they’re only as good as their performances for their new teams, coaches can expect to be scrutinized for any whiff of condescension to their new environment, and held to a particularly high standard accordingly.

Contempt


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of contemning or despising; the feeling with which one regards that which is esteemed mean, vile, or worthless; disdain; scorn.
  • (n.) The state of being despised; disgrace; shame.
  • (n.) An act or expression denoting contempt.
  • (n.) Disobedience of the rules, orders, or process of a court of justice, or of rules or orders of a legislative body; disorderly, contemptuous, or insolent language or behavior in presence of a court, tending to disturb its proceedings, or impair the respect due to its authority.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This "paradox of redistribution" was certainly observable in Britain, where Welfare retained its status as one of the 20th century's most exalted creations, even while those claiming benefits were treated with ever greater contempt.
  • (2) Refusing either to acquiesce in, or to rail at, Eliot's contempt for Jews, one strives to do justice to the many injustices Eliot does to Jews.
  • (3) But if it succeeds in getting a ban on the eight named phones, it could add the Galaxy S3 to the list through a more rapid "contempt proceeding" before the judge, according to legal experts.
  • (4) Yes, Goldsmith is to be held in contempt: a man of decency would have rejected this gutter strategy.
  • (5) "To prosecute someone for contempt of court is quite a serious step.
  • (6) Plagued by prison riots, IRA breakouts, illegal deportations, verdicts that found him in contempt of court, and over-hasty legislation on dogs, he acquired a reputation – as home secretaries often do – for being accident-prone.
  • (7) All the while, they are treated with a dismissiveness that borders on contempt.
  • (8) Perhaps monstering earns underdog sympathy, with contempt for the press as rife as contempt for conventional politics.
  • (9) Skylight review – Nighy and Mulligan in moving mixture of politics and love | Michael Billington Read more Commentators write glibly about the public’s increasing contempt for politicians, and yet what goes unremarked, and is equally damaging, is politicians’ growing contempt for us.
  • (10) A report on phone hacking published by the select committee on standards and privileges concluded hacking could be in contempt, "if it can be shown to have interfered with the work of the house or to have impeded or obstructed an MP from taking part in such work".
  • (11) Even the most “apolitical” of writers had found it difficult to conceal their contempt for the state of the country.
  • (12) Every detail of the dissolution honours betrayed contempt for the public.
  • (13) Above a fairly straightforward news story about the court’s decision to allow the country’s elected representatives a vote on the biggest constitutional upheaval in a generation, initially the headline read: “Yet again the elite show their contempt for Brexit voters!” Call me ‘remoaner-in-chief’, but I won’t be voting to trigger article 50 | Owen Smith Read more Launched within an hour of the verdict, the headline went on: “Supreme Court rules Theresa May CANNOT trigger Britain’s departure from the EU without MPs’ approval … as Remain campaigners gloat.” The copy itself provided little evidence of gloating.
  • (14) The government’s green paper on parliamentary privilege , published in 2012, said: [Parliament’s] power to punish non-members for contempt is untested in recent times.
  • (15) A move by the chancellor in the autumn statement to reverse the planned cuts to work allowances would send a strong message that the government’s welcome rhetoric is being backed by bold policy decisions.” The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said: “Theresa May and Philip Hammond have as much contempt for low income families as David Cameron and George Osborne ever did.
  • (16) I felt deeply grateful, but I also realised that my contempt for the non-hardcore readers – the softer core readers... not contempt, but my writing them off, had been premature.
  • (17) In a statement, the network added: "The crackdown on activists, being directly related to the anniversary, demonstrates contempt towards international human rights norms and insincerity in the government's own pledges and commitments to promote human rights in China ."
  • (18) Obstetrics was held in contempt by professionally educated and registered physicians and apothecaries, however, because of the immodesty and messiness of the work and the long hours involved.
  • (19) Return of Rebekah Brooks is 'two fingers up to British public' – shadow minister Read more “I am now standing up against those that sit back and treat us all with contempt – the Murdochs and Brooks of the world,” Hanna said in a two-minute video released on Friday.
  • (20) "We had the absurd position this week of even MPs in our democratically elected parliament being threatened with potential contempt of court by using their parliamentary privilege to name people.