despite

English

Alternative forms

• despight (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈspaɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt

Preposition

despite

1. In spite of, notwithstanding, regardless of.
   • 1592–1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet III:

     So thou through windows of thine age shall see

     Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.

   • 1592–1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIX:

     Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,

     My love shall in my verse ever live young.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2014 March 3, Zoe Alderton, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions‎^[2], 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.

Synonyms

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

Noun

despite (countable and uncountable, plural despites)

1. (obsolete) Disdain, contemptuous feelings, hatred.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Bible, Ezekiel xxv. 6

     all thy despite against the land of Israel

   • 1599, Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 1

     DON PEDRO. Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of beauty.

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

   • (Can we date this quote?)

     a despite done against the Most High

3. Evil feeling; malice, spite.
   • (Can we date this quote?), tr. Richard Crawley, Thucydides The Peloponnesian War:

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

Derived terms

• despiteful

Translations

in spite of

• Albanian: megjithëse (sq)
• Arabic: رَغْمَ (raḡma), بِالرَّغْمِ مِن (bi-r-raḡmi min), مَعَ (ar) (maʕa)

  Moroccan Arabic: واخّا (wāḵḵā)

• Armenian: չնայած (hy) (čʻnayac)
• Azerbaijani: baxmayaraq, rəğmən
• Bashkir: ҡарамаҫтан (qaramaśtan)
• Basque: gora-behera ere
• Belarusian: нягле́дзячы на (njahljédzjačy na), насу́перак (nasúpjerak)
• Bulgarian: въпреки (bg) (vǎpreki)
• Catalan: malgrat (ca), tot i que, encara que, tot i
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 儘管／尽管 (zh), 尽管 (zh) (jǐnguǎn), 不顧／不顾 (zh) (bùgù), 不顾 (zh) (bú gù), 不管 (zh) (bùguǎn), 任憑／任凭 (zh) (rènpíng), 任凭 (zh) (rènpíng), 即使 (zh) (jíshǐ)

• Czech: přes (cs), vzdor (cs), navzdory (cs)
• Danish: på trods af, trods
• Dutch: ondanks (nl)
• Esperanto: malgraŭ (eo), spite al, spite (eo) (+ accusative)
• Finnish: huolimatta (fi) (+ elative)
• French: en dépit de (fr), malgré (fr)
• Galician: malia
• Georgian: მიუხედავად (miuxedavad)
• German: trotz (de)
• Greek: παρά (el) (pará)
• Hebrew: למרות (he) (lamrot)
• Hindi: के बावजूद (ke bāvjūd)
• Hungarian: ellenére (hu), annak ellenére, hogy, dacára (hu), dacára, hogy
• Icelandic: þrátt fyrir
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Interlingua: malgrado (ia)
• Irish: in ainneoin
• Italian: nonostante (it), sebbene (it), malgrado (it)
• Japanese: (suffix) ...にも関わらず (ja) (...にもかかわらず, ...nimo kakawarazu)
• Korean: 에도 불구하고 (edo bulguhago)
• Latin: quamquam (la)
• Malay: walaupun
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: til tross for

• Persian: علیرغم (fa) (alâraqm)
• Polish: mimo (pl), pomimo (pl), wbrew (pl), naprzekór
• Portuguese: a despeito de (pt), apesar de (pt), não obstante (pt)
• Romanian: în ciuda, cu tot
• Russian: несмотря́ на (ru) (nesmotrjá na), вопреки́ (ru) (voprekí), напереко́р (ru) (naperekór)
• Scottish Gaelic: a dh'aindeoin
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: уcпркос

  Roman: usprkos (sh)

• Spanish: a pesar de (es), pese a (es), no obstante (es), maguer, malgrado (es)
• Swedish: trots (att) (sv)
• Thai: แม้จะมี (mae cha mi)
• Turkish: rağmen (tr), karşın (tr)
• Ukrainian: незважаючи на (nezvažajučy na), всупереч (vsupereč)
• Vietnamese: mặc dù (vi), không kể, bất chấp (vi)
• Walloon: mågré (wa)

Verb

1. (obsolete) To vex; to annoy; to offend contemptuously.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Raleigh to this entry?)

References

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

Anagrams

• seed pit