Dictionary

withsay en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English withseien, from Old English wiþseċġan (“to speak against; to denounce, renounce, or deny”), corresponding to with- + say. Cognate with Old Saxon witharseggian (“to object”), Low German wedderseggen (“to renounce”), German widersagen (“to renounce”), Dutch wederzeggen and weerzeggen.

Meanings

1. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To speak against someone or something. ▸ To contradict or deny.
   • Sythe I have sayd it, I wyll never withsay it. 1530, John Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, 783/2:
2. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To speak against someone or something. ▸ To gainsay, to oppose in speech (and by extension writing).
   • Let the lewd with faith and fervour worship. With will will we withstand, withsay. 1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC:
3. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To speak against someone or something. ▸ To forbid, to refuse to allow, give, or permit.
   • I wyll not withsaye thy desyre. c. 1530, St. German's Dyaloge Doctoure & Student, VI f xiii:
4. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To speak against someone or something. ▸ To decline, to refuse to do or accept.
   • I sent to them also martyrs, confessors, and doctors, and they accorded not to them, ne to their doctrine, but because it appertaineth not to me to withsay thy request, I shall give to them my preachers, by whom they may be enlumined and made clean, or else I shall come against them myself if they will not amend them. 1900 (original version 1260), Jacobus (de Voragine), William Caxton, Frederick Startridge Ellis, The Golden Legend, Or, Lives of the Saints - Volume 4
   • He was mild to good men of God and stark beyond all bounds to those who withsaid his will. 2000, James Farl Powers, Morte D'Urban:
   • This is in noe wise to bee withsaid, for it is the King's honour. c. 1670, ordinance in Collection of Ordinances of the Royal Household - 1327–1694 (1790), 372

Forms

Deriveds

withsaying · withsayer

Relateds

withsaw

Synonyms

withspeak · gainsay