misprision

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English

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WOTD – 4 November 2022

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Late Middle English misprision, mesprision (“criminal offence or illegal action, especially one committed by a public official”) [and other forms],[1] from Anglo-Norman misprision, mesprision, mesprison (“criminal offence or illegal action; error, mistake, specifically an error by a court”) [and other forms] (whence Late Latin mesprisio, misprisio), and Old French mesprison, from mespris (“contempt, disdain”) (modern French mépris) + -ion (suffix indicating a condition or state).[2] Mespris is the past participle of mesprendre (“to misunderstand”), from mes- (prefix meaning ‘badly; wrongly’) + prendre (“to take”)[3] (from Latin prēndere, the present active infinitive of prēndō, a variant of prehendō (“to seize, take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to find; to seize, take; to hold”)).

Noun

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misprision (countable and uncountable, plural misprisions)

  1. (law, chiefly historical)
    1. (uncountable) Criminal neglect or wrongful execution of duty, especially by a public official; (countable) a specific instance of this.
    2. (uncountable) In full misprision of felony or misprision of treason: originally, a less serious form of felony or treason; later, the crime of (intentionally) failing to give information about a felony or treason that one knows about; (countable) an instance of this.
      misprision of heresy
      (literally, “the crime of failing to disclose heresy that one is aware of”)
      • 1769, William Blackstone, “Of Misprisions and Contempts, Affecting the King and Government”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 119:
        Misprisions (a term derived from the old French, meſpris, a neglect or contempt) are, in the acceptation of our law, generally underſtood to be all ſuch high offences as are under the degree of capital, but nearly bordering thereon: and it is ſaid, that a miſpriſion is contained in every treaſon and felony whatſoever; and that, if the king ſo pleaſe, the offender may be proceeded againſt for the miſpriſion only. […] Miſpriſions are generally divided into two ſorts; negative, which conſiſt in the concealment of ſomething which ought to be revealed; and poſitive, which conſiſt in the commiſſion of ſomething which ought not to be done.
      • 1855, Charles Kingsley, “How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume II, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 176:
        The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a prisoner before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something very like misprision of treason in not handing him over to the nearest justice.
      • 1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXXII, in Middlemarch […], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book III, page 161:
        Mr Borthrop Trumbull really knew nothing about old Featherstone's will; but he could hardly have been bought to declare any ignorance unless he had been arrested for misprision of treason.
  2. (by extension)
    1. (uncountable) Misinterpretation or misunderstanding; (countable) an instance of this; a mistake.
    2. (uncountable) Incorrect or unfair suspicion; (countable) an instance of this.
Usage notes
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Where sense 2 (“less serious form of felony or treason; the crime of (intentionally) failing to give information about a felony or treason that one knows about”) is concerned, negative misprision is misprision by neglect of duty, notably a duty to report information about a felony or treason. Positive misprision is maladministration or the commission of other serious offence falling short of actual felony or treason.

Alternative forms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From misprize (“to despise or hold in contempt; to undervalue”) +‎ -ion (suffix indicating a condition or state), probably influenced by misprision (etymology 1).[4] Misprize is derived from Middle English mesprise, mespryse, from Anglo-Norman mespriser, Middle French mespriser, and Old French mesprisier, mesproisier (“to disdain, scorn; to despise, hate”) (modern French mépriser), from mes- (prefix meaning ‘badly; wrongly’) + priser, prisier (“to appraise, value”)[5] (from Late Latin pretiāre, the present active infinitive of pretiō (“to consider valuable, esteem, prize, value”), Medieval Latin pretiō (“to appraise, assess, value”), from Latin pretium (“cost, price; value, worth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before; in front; first”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

Noun

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misprision (uncountable)

  1. Despising or holding in contempt; disdain, scorn.
    Synonyms: (archaic) misprisal, (obsolete, rare) misprizement, (archaic) misprizing
  2. Not seeing the value in something; undervaluing.
    Synonym: (archaic) misprizing
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Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “misprisiọ̄n, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “misprision, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2021; “misprision1, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “misprize, v.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
  4. ^ “misprision, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2018.
  5. ^ “misprize, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2021; “misprize, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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