Took away someone's weapons, or made someone feel less defensive or hostile by being charming or friendly. The past tense of 'disarm.'
From Old French 'desarmer,' combining 'des-' (meaning 'to reverse') and 'armer' (meaning 'to arm'). The literal meaning 'to remove weapons' appeared first around the 1400s, and by the 1600s the figurative sense of 'to overcome someone's defenses through charm' developed as a natural extension.
Interestingly, the metaphorical use of 'disarm' predates its use in actual military contexts—we describe winning someone over as 'disarming' them, treating emotional walls like fortifications that must be breached by charisma rather than force. This shows how Shakespeare and other writers borrowed military language to describe social interactions.
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