withseien

Middle English

Alternative forms

• withseyen, wiþseyen, wiðseyen, witheseine, withseggen, witsiggen

Etymology

From Old English wiþsecgan (“withsay”), adapted to reflect the change of the verb secgan (“say”) to Middle English seien; equivalent to with- +‎ seien.

Verb

withseien

1. to speak against, that is:
   1. to protest, to deny; to refute, to speak out against, to oppose in speech
      • c. 1225 Ancrene Riwle (Cleopatra C vi), 68:

        Ȝef an mon...deð swa muche mis. þet hit beo se open sunne. þet he hit ne maȝe nanesweis allunge wið seggen.

      • c. 1445 in W. P. Baildon, Select cases in Chancery, A.D. 1364 to 1471 (1896), 136:

        He withseieth not the matier conteigned in the seid bille of complainte.

   2. to disparage; to denounce
   3. to contemn, to display contempt for
   4. to renounce, to repudiate, to give up
      • c. 1386 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Seconde Nonnes Tale in the tales of Caunterbury, 447:

        Euery cristen wight shal han penaunce
        But if that he his cristendom withseye.

   5. to refuse; to forbid, to refuse permission to
      • c. 1450 Merlin (1899), XIV 204:

        I will in no wise with-sey that ye requere.

   6. to decline, to refuse to do or accept
      • c. 1225 Ancrene Riwle (Cleopatra C vi), 175:

        Þeo...wið seggeð þe grant þer of wið an wille heorte.

      • 1402, Thomas Hoccleve, Letters of Cupid, 108:

        She...So lyberal ys, she wol no wyght with-sey.

      • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum iij”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XIII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

        ‘Sir,’ he seyde, ‘I myght nat withsey myne unclis wyll.’

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   7. to reply
   8. (law) to appeal, to contest the validity of a legal decision
   9. (law) to challenge, to contest the validity of a claim or argument
   10. (law) to disavow, to contest the validity of an oath

Descendants

• English: withsay