condign

From Middle English condigne, from Old French condigne, from Latin condignus, from con- +‎ dignus (“worthy”).

• IPA^(key): /kənˈdaɪn/

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• Rhymes: -aɪn

condign (comparative more condign, superlative most condign)

1. Fitting, appropriate, deserved, especially denoting punishment
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 131, column 1:

     Vnlesse it were a bloody Murtherer,
     Or foule felonious Theefe, that fleec'd poore passengers,
     I neuer gaue them condigne punishment.

   • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “The conference between don Diego and John Bull.”, in John Bull Still in His Senses: Being the Third Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 117:

     Consider, then, who is your best friend: he that would have brought him to condign punishment, or he that has saved him?

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 54, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

     When our Mahmouds or Selims of Baker Street or Belgrave Square visit their Fatimas with condign punishment, their mothers sew up Fatima’s sack for her, and her sisters and sisters-in-law see her well under water.

   • 1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC, section I, page 18:

     Pooh-bah. […] And so, / Although / I wish to go, / And greatly pine / To brightly shine, / And take the line / Of a hero fine, / With grief condign / I must decline—

   • 1962, Charles Kinbote [pseudonym; Vladimir Nabokov], “Commentary”, in Pale Fire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1985, →ISBN, page 149, line 549:

     For a Christian, no Beyond is acceptable or imaginable without the participation of God in our eternal destiny, and this in turn implies a condign punishment for every sin, great and small.

   • 2004 October 21, George F. Will, “"Disenfranchised' voters: victims of incompetence”, in The St. Petersburg Times‎:

     Can liberals accept that an undervote usually reflects either voter carelessness, for which the voter suffers the condign punishment of an unrecorded preference, or it reflects the voter's choice not to express a preference?

• condignity

• conding