I am familiar with the word condign pretty much exclusively in the (pompous but not obsolete) phrase “condign punishment,” and I suspect this is the case for most modern users of the language; that Wiktionary article defines it as “Fitting, appropriate, deserved, especially denoting punishment.” But when I checked the OED, whose entry dates back to 1891, I find a whole series of senses, beginning with the obsolete senses “1. † Equal in worth or dignity (to)” (c1470 “This Kyng Arthure, to whom none was condigne Through all the world,” J. Hardyng, Chronicle lxxxiv. vii), “2. † Worthy, deserving” (a1513 “She hath great honour..As most condigne to beare the principalite,” H. Bradshaw, Lyfe St. Werburge ii. xxi. sig. r.v), and “3.a. Worthily deserved, merited, fitting, appropriate; adequate” (1413 “Take him vp in to thy blysse on hye in what degree that to hym is condygne,” J. Lydgate, Pilgr. of Sowle ii. xlii. 48) before getting to the modern sense:
3.b. Since the end of 17th cent. commonly used only of appropriate punishment: a use originating in the phraseology of Tudor Acts of Parliament.
Johnson 1755 says, ‘It is always used of something deserved by crimes’. De Quincey Templars’ Dial. in Wks. IV. 188 note, ‘Capriciously..the word condign is used only in connection with the word punishment..These and other words, if unlocked from their absurd imprisonment, would become extensively useful. We should say, for instance, “condign honours”, “condign reward”, “condign treatment” (treatment appropriate to the merits).’ [Cf. 1873 at sense 3a.]1513 The godly power..Onto tha wikkyt Sawlis..Hes send conding punytioun, and just panys.
G. Douglas, translation of Virgil, Æneid xiii. vii. 64
[…]1849 He had been brought to condign punishment as a traitor.
T. B. Macaulay, History of England vol. I. 5751878 To wreak condign vengeance on the common oppressor of them all.
R. B. Smith, Carthage 195
It’s from French condigne, which has the theological sense “Exactement proportionné à la faute ou à la récompense. Peine, satisfaction, mérite condigne” (apparently not restricted to negative senses as in English) but is not in even my largest printed dictionary; the ultimate source is Latin condignus ‘wholly worthy.’ I love that De Quincey quote about its “absurd imprisonment.”
Interesting. As far as I had ever thought about it (which isn’t much), I thought it meant severe punishment – which kind of makes sense, because I don’t think it’s likely to be used in situations where the appropriate punishment is a £50 fine!
I had a vague sense that I had encountered senses 2 or 3.a before, perhaps in Shakespeare. And indeed, he playwright uses condign twice—once (in Henry VI, Part II) in “condign punishement,” but also in Love’s Labour’s Lost in “condign praise.”
I think that Jen in Edinburgh is basically right that in its remaining common meaning, condign modifying a form of punishment does not quite mean “fitting, appropriate, deserved.” It is closer to meaning “fittingly, appropriately, or deservedly severe.” As she indicates, it does not seem right to refer to a slap on the wrist penalty for a minor infraction as “condign,” however, “appropriate” it may be.
Similarly, phrases like “the punishment you deserve” usually seem to me to connote “as opposed to some lesser punishment”.
I wonder how it’s rendered in Kusaal.
But I think we’ll soon find out.