prepossession

English

Etymology

pre- +‎ possession.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɹiːpəˈzɛʃən/

Noun

prepossession (countable and uncountable, plural prepossessions)

1. Preoccupation; having possession beforehand.
   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume I, chapter 7:

     It opens his designs to his family, it introduces you among them, it diffuses through the party those pleasantest feelings of our nature, eager curiosity and warm prepossession.

2. A preconceived opinion, or previous impression; bias, prejudice.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience […] ‎^[1], London: Folio Society, published 2008, page 386:

     The spontaneous intellect of man always defines the divine which it feels in ways that harmonise with its temporary intellectual prepossessions.

Quotations

• 1791 : I am fully sensible to the greatness of that freedom, which I take with you on the present occasion; a liberty which seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished and dignified station in which you stand, and the almost general prejudice and prepossession, which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion. - Letter from Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Jefferson, August 19, 1791

References

• “prepossession”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.