Surprise and alarm fused with discouragement.
Surprise and alarm fused with discouragement — a sudden loss of courage or resolve at something bad.
Surprise and alarm joined to discouragement and a failure of resolve: what marks it off is the disheartening edge — one feels thrown off balance and unsure how to manage. Firmly negative, since the trigger is always unwelcome (“to the dismay of her fans”). Softer and more deflating than shock: where shock lands as a violent jolt, dismay is the sinking, daunted response, frequently shaded with disappointment.
c. 1300, from dis- (intensive) + a root from Old French esmaier “to trouble,” from Vulgar Latin *exmagare “to deprive of power/ability” (ex- + Proto-Germanic *magan “to be able”). The literal sense is “to un-able, break down courage.”
Remarkably stable since c. 1300: “alarm, dishearten, break the courage of,” with the “loss of courage/resolution” sense visible from the start. The softer “disappointment/perturbation” senses were present in the early “consternation” range. No reliable recent-generation shift.