In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
MISPRISION
Etymology
Noun
misprision (countable and uncountable, plural misprisions)
(legal) Criminal neglect of duty or wrongful execution of official duties.
(legal) The failure to give information about a crime that one knows to be taking place.
Misinterpretation or misunderstanding.
Usage notes
Negative misprision is misprision by neglect of duty, notably a duty to report information about a felony or treason. Positive misprision is maladministration or the commission of other serious offence falling short of actual felony or treason.
Source: Wiktionary
Mis*pri"sion, n. Etym: [LL. misprisio, or OF. mesprison, prop., a mistaking, but confused with OF. mespris contempt, F. mépris. See 2d Misprise, Misprize, Prison.]
1. The act of misprising; misapprehension; misconception; mistake. [Archaic] Fuller. The misprision of this passage has aided in fostering the delusive notion. Hare.
2. Neglect; undervaluing; contempt. [Obs.] Shak.
3. (Law)
Definition: A neglect, negligence, or contempt.
Note: In its larger and older sense it was used to signify "every considerable misdemeanor which has not a certain name given to it in the law." Russell. In a more modern sense it is applied exclusively to two offenses: --1. Misprision of treason, which is omission to notify the authorities of an act of treason by a person cognizant thereof. Stephen. 2. Misprision of felony, which is a concealment of a felony by a person cognizant thereof. Stephen.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
13 May 2025
DAZED
(adjective) in a state of mental numbness especially as resulting from shock; “he had a dazed expression on his face”; “lay semiconscious, stunned (or stupefied) by the blow”; “was stupid from fatigue”
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