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That is despicable!

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Topic:	6) That is despicable! (1 of 9), Read 72 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Barbara Wallraff ([email protected])
Date:	Wednesday, March 10, 1999 09:24 AM

Karenya Klein, of Hamden, Connecticut, writes: "If you suspect someone or something, you harbor a suspicion about them or it. If you despise someone or something, then you have or feel - what? Despicion?"

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (2 of 9), Read 63 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Marv Kirk ([email protected])
Date:	Wednesday, March 10, 1999 09:50 PM

How about "dispisal?"

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (3 of 9), Read 63 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Dan Dillon ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, March 11, 1999 09:16 AM

Perhaps one feels abhorrence. Or execration. Or detestation.

But why the need for a nominalization at all? Seems to me just as well to despise someone.

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (4 of 9), Read 56 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Glenn Werner ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, March 11, 1999 05:52 PM

Poor Karenya, why do you harbor disdain so?

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (5 of 9), Read 42 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Michael Fischer ([email protected])
Date:	Monday, March 15, 1999 03:57 PM

>Karenya Klein, of Hamden,
>Connecticut, writes: " If you despise
>someone or something, then you
>have or feel - what? Despicion?"

"despite" is a noun which describes the feeling or attitude of despising.

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (6 of 9), Read 28 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Mark Harris ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, March 18, 1999 07:15 PM

"despite" works better as a preposition than a noun; try its abbreviation, "spite."

Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (7 of 9), Read 24 times
Conf: >
From:	Michael Fischer ([email protected])
Date:	Friday, March 19, 1999 01:40 AM

On 3/18/99 7:15:01 PM, Mark Harris wrote:
>"despite" works better as a
>preposition than a noun...

maybe so, but the noun form came first; just
trying to save some effort here through reuse. actually it has several senses as a noun: 1) contempt 2) malice or spite 3) detriment

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (8 of 9), Read 21 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Marty Smith ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, March 18, 1999 09:54 PM

I would say that if you despise something, what you feel for it is contempt (which has no other verb form).

Going out on a limb:

Suspect : Suspicion :: Despise : Contempt

Topic:	6) That is despicable! (9 of 9), Read 17 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Michael Fischer ([email protected])
Date:	Friday, March 19, 1999 01:45 AM

On 3/18/99 9:54:08 PM, Marty Smith wrote:
>I would say that if you
>despise something, what you
>feel for it is contempt (which
>has no other verb form).

I'm not sure what you mean by saying contempt has "no other verb form". The verb from the same Latin root is "contemn", meaning to treat with contempt or scorn, a synonym of despise.

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