To cause someone to lose courage, confidence, or enthusiasm; to make someone feel discouraged or sad.
From dis- + hearten (from heart). The -en suffix makes it a causative verb. Emerged in the 1600s as the standardized form replacing the earlier 'disheart,' reflecting English's preference for longer, more systematic verb formations.
Dishearten appears constantly in literature because writers discovered it perfectly captures the emotional mechanism of defeat—it doesn't mean to hurt someone physically, but to damage their internal state in a way that prevents action.
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