despicable

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin dēspicābilis (“contemptible”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Latin dēspicor (“to look down on, despise”),^[2][3][4][8] with -ābilis (“-able”).^[4][9] The Latin verb is related to dēspiciō (“to look down on”),^[3][2][7] the source of despise,^[2] formed from dē- (“down”) and speciō (“to look at”),^[3][7][9] from Proto-Indo-European *spek- (“to observe”).^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Deserving to be looked down on; vile, base, contemptible: 1553, in Richard Eden's translation of Münster's Treatyse of Newe India.^[6][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense has hardly changed since the 16th century.^[6][10] Two others died out: "miserable, wretched" (1635–1704) and, with the Latin verb's active meaning, "showing contempt, contemptuous" (1662–1775).^[6][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "contemptible; vile; mean; sordid; worthless", and noted that it was used of persons and things alike.^[11]

Timeline

• 1553 – deserving contempt; vile.^[6][2][4]
• 1635 – miserable, wretched (obsolete by 1704).^[6]
• 1662 – contemptuous (obsolete by 1775).^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Deserving to be despised; contemptible, vile or mean: a despicable betrayal of a friend.^[12][4][6]

Word family

• despicableness
• despicably
• despicability

Related words

• despise
• despite
• spectacle
• species
• inspect
• suspicion

Usage notes

The stress may fall on the second syllable or on the first: Merriam-Webster gives the second as usual and the first as a variant,^[4] Collins gives both,^[12] and the OED's British pronunciation stresses the first.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins