What does disprize mean?
To disprize is to despise — to regard someone or something as worthless, base, or deserving of contempt. The verb can shade between outright scorn and mere undervaluing, as when a person sets too little store by their own gifts or heritage. Formed on the same Latin root as 'prize', it is essentially the semantic opposite: where prizing elevates, disprizing debases. The word flourished in Early Modern English and appears in the literature of that period alongside kindred forms like 'dispraise', which concerns spoken criticism rather than inward disdain. Today disprize survives only in archaic, poetic, or deliberately antique registers, and most modern readers will meet it in historical texts rather than everyday speech. Its enduring value lies in its precision: it names a settled attitude of low estimation rather than a passing judgment.
verbTo disprize is to regard as worthless or contemptible; to despise or undervalue.
- To despise; to hold in contempt or think meanly of.
- To undervalue or set little store by something.
"He came to disprize the very traditions he had once defended so fervently."
"She refused to disprize her humble beginnings, seeing in them the source of her strength."
"The critic was accused of disprizing a playwright whose work he had never truly engaged with."
'Disprize' shares its ancient root with 'prize' itself — the same Latin word for price gave English both our highest valuations and our deepest contempt.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of disprize
Disprize derives from Old French 'desprisier', formed from the intensive prefix des- plus 'prisier', meaning to prize or value, which itself descends from Latin 'pretiare', to set a price upon, from 'pretium' (price). It entered English in the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance period. The same Latin root gives English 'price', 'precious', 'appraise', 'appreciate', and 'praise' — making disprize a direct sibling of the very word it negates.
How disprize is actually used
Disprize is archaic and literary, found mainly in older texts such as Shakespeare's era and later antiquarian writing. It carries a formal, somewhat elevated tone; in modern prose, 'despise', 'scorn', or 'undervalue' are the natural choices.
Easily confused with disprize
Dispraise means to criticize or speak ill of something, while disprize means to consider it worthless or to despise it.
Deprize is a rare variant spelling of disprize carrying the same sense of despising, but it also appears historically in the sense of depreciating or lowering value.