different between contumely vs despite

English

Etymology

From Old French contumelie, from Latin contum?lia (“insult”), perhaps from com- + tume? (“swell”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?ntju?m?li/

Noun

contumely (countable and uncountable, plural contumelies)

1. Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.

   • For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time, The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely [...]

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the Second, page 19 ?ISBN

     She had been subjected to contumely and cross-questoning and ill-usage through the whole evening.

   • 1953, James Strachey, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, p. 178:

     If this picture of the two psychical agencies and their relation to the consciousness is accepted, there is a complete analogy in political life to the extraordinary affection which I felt in my dream for my friend R., who was treated with such contumely during the dream's interpretation.

Related terms

• contumacious
• contumaciously
• contumaciousness
• contumacy
• contumelious

Translations

Further reading

• “contumely”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

English

Alternative forms

• despight (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French despit, from Latin d?spectum (“looking down on”), from d?spici? (“to look down, despise”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??spa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Preposition

despite

1. In spite of, notwithstanding, regardless of.

Synonyms

• in spite of, maugre; see also Thesaurus:despite

Translations

Noun

despite (countable and uncountable, plural despites)

1. (obsolete) Disdain, contemptuous feelings, hatred.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Again?t venemous tongues enpoy?oned with ?claunder and fal?e detractions &c.:

     A fals double tunge is more fiers and fell
     Then Cerberus the cur couching in the kenel of hel;
     Wherof hereafter, I thinke for to write,
     Of fals double tunges in the di?pite.
2. (archaic) Action or behaviour displaying such feelings; an outrage, insult.
3. Evil feeling; malice, spite.
   • 1874, translated by Richard Crawley, Thucydides The Peloponnesian War:

     And for these Corcyraeans—neither receive them into alliance in our despite, nor be their abettors in crime.

Derived terms

• despiteful

Verb

despite (third-person singular simple present despites, present participle despiting, simple past and past participle despited)

1. (obsolete) To vex; to annoy; to offend contemptuously.

   • to despite his opposites

References

• despite at OneLook Dictionary Search
• despite in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• seed pit, septide