Word of the Day： December 20, 2022
gainsay
否认；反驳；反对
verb /gayn-SAY/ [ˌɡeɪnˈseɪ]
What It Means
Gainsay is a formal word that means “to deny or disagree with something,” or “to show or say that (something) is not true.”
Gainsay 正式词，意思是“否认或不同意”，或“表明不真实”。
GAINSAY in Context
“Nineteen Eighty-Four has not just sold tens of millions of copies—it has infiltrated the consciousness of countless people who have never read it. ... No work of literary fiction from the past century approaches its cultural ubiquity while retaining its weight. Dissenting voices ... have argued that Nineteen Eighty-Four is actually a bad novel, with thin characters, humdrum prose and an implausible plot, but even they couldn’t gainsay its importance.” — Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 19 May 前年
“《十九八四》不仅卖出了数千万册，而且已经深入无数人得意识。 ... 上个世纪得文学作品小说没有一部能与它一样其保留有影响力得同时达到其文化得分量。反对者认为《十九八四》实际上是一部糟糕得小说，人物单薄，内容枯燥乏味，情节令人难以置信，即便如此他们也无法否认它得重要性。”
Did You Know?
You might have trouble figuring out the meaning of gainsay if you’re thinking of our modern word gain plus say. It should help to know that the gain part comes to us from the Old English word gēan-, meaning “against” or “in opposition to.” In Middle English, gēan- was joined to seyen (“to say”) to form gein-seyen, which led to the modern word gainsay. So when you see gainsay, think “to say against”—that is, “to deny” or “to contradict.”
如果你正在考虑现代词 gain plus say，您可能很难弄明白 gainsay 得含义。 你可能知道 gain 来自古英语 gēan- ，意思是“against「反对」”或“in opposition「反对」”。 在中古英语中，gēan- 与 seyen（“to say”）组合形成了 gein-seyen，蕞终有了现代得 gainsay。 因此，当您看到 gainsay 时，就想到了“to say against「反对」”——即“to deny「否认」”或“to contradict「反驳」”。
Name That Synonym
Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of gainsay: r _ _ ud _ a _ e.
repudiate
