Dissent - dissident

Do not confuse the words ‘dissent’ – always pronounced with the stress on the second syllable - and ‘dissident’ - always pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.

Central to the meaning of both words is the idea of disagreement, but the two words are used in rather different ways.

‘Dissent’ may be either a verb or a noun. As a verb, ‘to dissent’ means: to disagree with or refuse to accept (a proposition or statement). The verb is always intransitive, what one disagrees with or refuses to accept being preceded by the preposition ‘from’ – as in ‘Few doctors now dissent from the view that children should be given the MMR vaccine‘. As a noun, ‘dissent’ means: disagreement with or refusal to accept (a proposition or statement). (See also Dissent - descent - descend.)

‘Dissent’ has a more specific sense in the history of Christianity in the United Kingdom, where it means: disagreement with or refusal to accept the doctrines and practices of the established church, i.e., the Church of England. In this context a Dissenter – always with an initial capital - is a person who disagrees with the doctrines and practices of the Church of England and is a member of some other Protestant church. The term ‘Dissenter’ tends to be confined to the history of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries: nowadays those Protestants who disagree with the doctrines and practices of the Church of England are usually referred to as Nonconformists, or as members of one of the Free Churches.

‘Dissident’ may be either a noun or an adjective, but unlike ‘dissent’, which may be used of disagreement in any context, ‘dissident’ is restricted in its use to political contexts. A dissident is a person who disagrees with the policies and challenges the authority of the government or of some group (e.g., a political party) of which he is a member. As an adjective, ‘dissident’ is used to describe such a person.

Etymological note: Both ‘dissent’ and ‘dissident’ entered English in the sixteenth century from Latin. ‘Dissent’ comes from the verb dissentire, to disagree (a compound formed from dis-, apart, and sentire, to feel); while ‘dissident’ comes from the verb dissidere, to be distant, to disagree (a compound formed from dis-, apart, and sedere, to sit).