prepossession

American  

[pree-puh-zesh-uhn] / ˌpri pəˈzɛʃ ən /

noun

1. the state of being prepossessed.

2. a prejudice, especially one in favor of a person or thing.

   Synonyms:

   interest, bias, liking, predilection

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prepossession British  

/ ˌpriːpəˈzɛʃən /

noun

1. the state or condition of being prepossessed

2. a prejudice or bias, esp a favourable one

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Other Word Forms

• prepossessionary
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of prepossession

First recorded in 1640–50; pre- + possession

Explanation

Prepossession is a prejudice or a preconceived idea about something. You might be accused of prepossession if you decided you were going to dislike your new job before you'd even started working there. When you've got a strong opinion about a subject — or a person — despite having little information or direct experience, that's prepossession. Your prepossession on the subject of cats might make it hard for you to be enthusiastic about your roommate's new kitten, for example. The obsolete verb prepossess originally meant "to get possession of beforehand." By the 1630's, it came to mean "to possess a person beforehand with a feeling or idea," usually in a positive sense.

Example Sentences

It is not indeed to be denied, that there is something irresistible in a Beauteous Form; the most Severe will not pretend, that they do not feel an immediate Prepossession in Favour of the Handsome.

From The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Addison, Joseph

Prepossession, prejudice, and anticipatory opinion are, perhaps, the most dangerous foes of the criminalist.

From Criminal Psychology; a manual for judges, practitioners, and students by Gross, Hans Gustav Adolf

A great many Palaces are admir’d here, barely from the Prepossession that Architecture flourishes here more than any-where else.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume II Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels From Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

A Correspondent of mine, upon this Subject, has divided the Female Part of the Audience, and accounts for their Prepossession against this reasonable Delight in the following Manner.

From The Spectator, Volume 2. by Addison, Joseph

Prepossession is a mingled state of feeling and opinion in respect to some person or subject, which has laid hold of and occupied the mind previous to inquiry.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah

Related Words

• bias