misprize
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Middle French mespriser (verb), mespris (noun).
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
misprize (third-person singular simple present misprizes, present participle misprizing, simple past and past participle misprized)
- To despise or hold in contempt; to undervalue. [from 15th c.]
- 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- Nature neuer fram'd a womans heart,
Of prowder stuffe then that of Beatrice:
Disdaine and Scorne ride sparkling in her eyes,
Mis-prizing what they looke on […].
Noun edit
misprize (uncountable)
- (obsolete, rare) Contempt. [16th–19th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- He ment to make them know their follies prise,
Had not those two him instantly desired
T'asswage his wrath, and pardon their mesprise […] .