despite

English

Alternative forms

• despight (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈspaɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt

Etymology 1

The noun is from Middle English despit, dispit, from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”).

The preposition is from Middle English dispit, from the phrase in dispit of (in despite of).

Preposition

despite

1. In spite of, notwithstanding.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 3”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. , London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     So thou through windowes of thine age ſhalt ſee,
     Diſpight of wrinkles this thy goulden time.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 19”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. , London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Yet doe thy worſt old Time diſpight thy wrong,
     My loue ſhall in my verſe euer liue young.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.

   • 1995, Billy Corgan (lyrics and music), “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”, in Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, performed by Smashing Pumpkins:

     Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.

   • 2014 March 3, Zoe Alderton, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions‎, volume 5, number 1, MDPI, →DOI, pages 219–257:

     Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film.

Usage notes

The terms despite of, despite that, and in despite of are archaic, nonstandard, or almost universally considered incorrect.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

despite (countable and uncountable, plural despites)

1. (obsolete) Disdain, contemptuous feelings, hatred.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe 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 diſpite.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Thou waſt euer an obſtinate heretique in the deſpight of Beautie.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Ezekiel 25:6:

     all thy despite against the land of Israel

2. (archaic) Action or behaviour displaying such feelings; an outrage, insult.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “iiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book II:

     he aſked kynge Arthur yf he wold gyue hym leue to ryde after Balen and to reuenge the deſpyte that he had done
     Doo your beſt ſaid Arthur I am right wroth ſaid Balen I wold he were quyte of the deſpyte that he hath done to me and to my Courte

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     a deſpite done againſt the Moſt High

3. Evil feeling; malice, spite, annoyance.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 3:

     How often am I obliged to speak mal à propos, because my features are not sufficiently charming in a state of repose!—how often is my ingenuity racked to find a word, when a look would have been far better! I am compelled to be amusing, in my own despite.

   • 1874, Thucydides, translated by Richard Crawley, The Peloponnesian War:

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

Derived terms

• despiteful

Etymology 2

From Middle English despite, dispite, dyspite, dyspyte, from Old French despitier.

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.
   • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World , London: William Stansby for Walter Burre, , →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

     to despite his opposites

References

• “despite”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “despite”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• seed pit, septide

Spanish

Verb

despite

1. inflection of despitar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative