spite

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /spaɪt/ See IPA manual

Freq #5422

Meanings

1

noun
A desire to hurt, annoy, or upset someone out of ill will.

He hid her keys out of pure spite.
2

verb
To deliberately annoy or hurt someone.

She married again quickly, just to spite her ex-husband.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a desire to hurt, annoy, or... grudgerancormalice

Word family

Forms spitedspitesspiting

Derived forms spitefulspitelessspiterspitesomespitishunspited

Related forms malicious malignant

Appears in

Proverbs (1)

See all

Don't cut off your nose to spite your face

Simplified etymology

Spite is a Middle English shortening of Old French despit, which also lies behind despise and ultimately comes from Latin despicere “look down on.”

Etymology

From Middle English spit, a shortening of despit (whence despite), from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from Latin dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). Compare also North Frisian spīt, spīd (“regret”), Saterland Frisian Spiet (“regret, remorse”), West Frisian spyt (“regret”), Dutch spijt (“regret, remorse”), German Low German Spiet (“anger, regret, remorse”), German Spiet (“annoyance, vexation”), Swedish spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”), Norwegian spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”).

*speḱ- Proto-Indo-European spit Middle English despit Middle English dēspectum Latin dēspiciō Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# spite

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /spaɪt/
**Frequency rank:** 5422

## Meanings
1. A desire to hurt, annoy, or upset someone out of ill will.
2. To deliberately annoy or hurt someone.

## Examples
- He hid her keys out of pure spite.
- She married again quickly, just to spite her ex-husband.

## Derived Forms
- spiteful
- spiteless
- spiter
- spitesome
- spitish
- unspited

## Related Forms
- malicious
- malignant

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *speḱ-
- Root: spit
- Root: despit
- Root: dēspectum
- Root: dēspiciō

## Etymology
From Middle English spit, a shortening of despit (whence despite), from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from Latin dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). Compare also North Frisian spīt, spīd (“regret”), Saterland Frisian Spiet (“regret, remorse”), West Frisian spyt (“regret”), Dutch spijt (“regret, remorse”), German Low German Spiet (“anger, regret, remorse”), German Spiet (“annoyance, vexation”), Swedish spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”), Norwegian spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”).

## AI Etymology
Spite is from Middle English spit, a shortening of despit (whence despite), from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from Latin dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). Compare also North Frisian spīt, spīd (“regret”), Saterland Frisian Spiet (“regret, remorse”), West Frisian spyt (“regret”), Dutch spijt (“regret, remorse”), German Low German Spiet (“anger, regret, remorse”), German Spiet (“annoyance, vexation”), Swedish spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”), Norwegian spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”). Important forms in the word's history include Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-, Middle English spit, Old French despit, Latin dēspectum, Latin dēspiciō. In current use it includes senses such as A desire to hurt, annoy, or upset someone out of ill will and To deliberately annoy or hurt someone.

## Topics
- People & Society

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