English

despite

Despite comes from Latin dēspectum ‘looking down on’, from speciō ‘to observe, watch, look at’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-.

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

¹ Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti
² Wiktionary, Latin specio
³ Wiktionary, Latin despicio
⁴ Wiktionary, English despite
Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, iiij: “he aſked kynge Arthur yf he wold gyue hym…”.

Lineage

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speḱ-1Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti‘to see’reconstructed
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spéḱyeti2Wiktionary, Latin specio‘to be looking at’reconstructed
Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*spekjō2Wiktionary, Latin specio‘to observe’reconstructed
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspeciō3Wiktionary, Latin despicio‘to observe’
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēspiciō4Wiktionary, English despite‘to look down’
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēspectum4Wiktionary, English despite‘looking down on’
Old Frenchc. 842–1400despit4Wiktionary, English despite
Middle Englishc. 1150–1500despit4Wiktionary, English despite
Englishearliest quotation 1485despite4Wiktionary, English despite. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, iiij: “he aſked kynge Arthur yf he wold gyue hym…”

The preposition is derived from Middle English dispit, itself derived from the phrase in dispit of (in despite of).

English words that share an ancestor with despite, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

305 more relatives in the full family tree

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prep In spite of, notwithstanding.

Sources: Wiktionary, “despite”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti, Latin specio, Latin despicio. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.