A few letters: Disconsternation vs. consternation

There’s something disconcerting about using these two words: Consternation doesn’t sound correct, yet disconsternation seems to mean the same thing.

Consternation is a feeling of anxiety or dismay. To wit: Having grown up on a farm in Nebraska, I felt great consternation about moving to Los Angeles.

We add the prefix “dis” to a word to show a negative or reversal. For example, disrespect means to be rude to someone, which is the opposite of respect. So disconsternation logically should mean to alleviate anxiety or dismay.

Some writers try to use disconsternation to mean the same as consternation, however. That’s probably because they intend to say disconcerting, which means to worry or to perturb. Oh what a difference a few letters make!

Bottom line: Disconsternation is not a word; use consternation instead. If consternation sounds wrong, you probably mean disconcerting, so use that word instead.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.