This week’s theme
Misleading words

This week’s words
antipelargy
misdoubt
withsay


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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(WITH-say)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To contradict, deny, oppose, or refuse.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English wiðsæcga (to renounce, literally, to say against), corresponding to with- + say. Earliest documented use: before 1150.

NOTES:

In Old English, the prefix with- didn’t mean together or alongside; it meant against or opposite (a sense that still survives in withstand and withdraw). So to withsay someone isn’t to be their hype man; it’s to shut them down completely.

USAGE:

“Sir, he said, I might not withsay mine uncle’s will and commandment.”
Thomas Malory; Le Morte d’Arthur; P.F. Collier & Son; 1910.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: