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In Bradbury's story 'The Burning Man' I found:

In just two minutes of leaping into the red-hot car, with his jungle hair and jungle smell, he had managed to disingratiate himself with the climate, the automobile, Doug, and the honorable and perspiring aunt.

The term disingratiate is unknown to the Oxford dictionary and merely defined by the Urban Dictionary

Why is this?

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  • 3
    It's just "dis-" + "ingratiate" (oneself); are you familiar with the latter word?
    – herisson
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 19:21
  • 2
    Dictionaries don't have room to include all the words that can be formed with common prefixes like "un-," "anti-," "non-" and "dis-".
    – herisson
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 19:22
  • Expanding @sumelic's explanation just a bit, if the prefix + root has an unexpected meaning, or multiple meanings, you will likely find them defined. An example of the first case is invaluable which usually is used in the sense of "so valuable it cannot be priced", rather than the expected "without value", or worthless. An example of the second case is the word invalid, which besides meaning "having no validity", also means (at least in US English) someone who is physically disabled.
    – brasshat
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 19:30
  • Ingratiate (v.): 1620s, possibly via 16c. Italian ingraziarsi "to bring (oneself) into favor," from Latin in gratiam "for the favor of," from in "in" (see in- (2)) + gratia "favor, grace" (see grace). Dis- (assimilated as dif- before -f-, to di- before most voiced consonants), word-forming element meaning 1. "lack of, not" (as in dishonest); 2. "do the opposite of" (as in disallow); 3. "apart, away" (as in discard), from Old French des-. (Etymonline)
    – user66974
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 19:33
  • It's a funny word, used in a funny passage.
    – Margana
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 19:40

1 Answer 1

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If the Burning Man---he of the jungle hair and jungle smell---had once found favor "with the climate, the automobile, Doug, and the honorable and perspiring aunt", as a result of his “crazy talk”---mostly about the heat and it’s unbearability---the Burning Man had managed to decisively reverse his fortune.

ingratiate verb: bring oneself into favor with someone by flattering or trying to please them. "a social climber who had tried to ingratiate herself with the city gentry"

synonyms: curry favor with, cultivate, win over, get in good with; see, Google

ingratiate (v.) 1620s, possibly via 16c. Italian ingraziarsi "to bring (oneself) into favor," from Latin in gratiam "for the favor of," from in "in" (see in- (2)) + gratia "favor, grace" (see grace). See, etymonline

disfavor noun: 1. disapproval or dislike. "the headmaster regarded her with disfavor"

synonyms: disapproval, disapprobation; see, Google

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