contemptus

Contemptus in Latin means scorn, disdain, from contemnere (to despise, to scorn, to think little of), from con- (intensive) + temnere (to slight, to despise). Temnere is rare in Latin outside this compound. The word entered English through Old French contempt in the fourteenth century, carrying the specific meaning of considering someone or something worthless — not hated, not feared, but beneath consideration.

Contempt acquired a legal meaning early. Contempt of court — defying the authority of a judge — was a recognized offense in English common law by the twelfth century. The concept is that the court's authority demands respect, and failure to provide it is punishable. This legal sense preserves the word's original force: contempt is not disagreement. It is the refusal to acknowledge that something deserves respect at all.

John Gottman's marriage research, conducted at the University of Washington from the 1970s onward, identified contempt as the single strongest predictor of divorce. Gottman called it one of the 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' of marriage, along with criticism, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Eye-rolling, sneering, mockery — the facial expressions of contempt signal that one partner has stopped seeing the other as an equal. The emotion is more destructive than anger because anger at least acknowledges the other person matters.

Paul Ekman included contempt in his list of universal facial expressions, identified cross-culturally through the unilateral lip raise — one side of the mouth raised, the asymmetric sneer. Contempt is the only emotion with an asymmetric expression. The face itself registers the inequality that contempt insists upon.