The Etymology of Despite
The preposition despite has had all the contempt wrung out of it.βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ When English borrowed despit from Old French in the thirteenth century, it was a noun charged with scorn and malice β closer to 'spite' than to 'notwithstanding.' The Latin source, dΔspectus, was the past participle of dΔspicere, 'to look down upon,' built from dΔ- (down) and specere (to look). To act in despite of someone was to act in open contempt of them, a gesture of defiance rather than a grammatical connector. The phrase 'in despite of' gradually softened over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, losing its emotional edge until it meant little more than 'regardless of.' By the eighteenth century, speakers had clipped the phrase to the bare preposition 'despite,' completing the transformation from scornful noun to colourless function word. The related verb despise retains the original venom β to despise is still to look down upon. The Latin root specere, meanwhile, produced an extraordinary family in English: spectacle, specimen, inspect, respect, suspect, and species all descend from the same act of looking.