withsay

English

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.

Verb

withsay (third-person singular simple present withsays, present participle withsaying, simple past and past participle withsaid)

1. (archaic or obsolete, transitive) To speak against someone or something.
   1. To contradict or deny.
      • 1530, John Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, 783/2:

        Sythe I have sayd it, I wyll never withsay it.

   2. To gainsay, to oppose in speech (and by extension writing).
      • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

        Let the lewd with faith and fervour worship. With will will we withstand, withsay.

   3. To forbid, to refuse to allow, give, or permit.
      • c. 1530, St. German's Dyaloge Doctoure & Student, VI f xiii:

        I wyll not withsaye thy desyre.

   4. To decline, to refuse to do or accept.
      • c. 1670, ordinance in Collection of Ordinances of the Royal Household - 1327–1694 (1790), 372:

        This is in noe wise to bee withsaid, for it is the King's honour.

      • 1900 (original version 1260), Jacobus (de Voragine), William Caxton, Frederick Startridge Ellis, The Golden Legend, Or, Lives of the Saints - Volume 4:

        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.

      • 2000, James Farl Powers, Morte D'Urban:

        He was mild to good men of God and stark beyond all bounds to those who withsaid his will.

Synonyms

• gainsay
• withspeak

Derived terms

• withsayer
• withsaying

Related terms

• withsaw

Anagrams

• Yahwist, this way