prepossession
Americannoun
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the state of being prepossessed.
-
a prejudice, especially one in favor of a person or thing.
- Synonyms:
- interest, bias, liking, predilection
noun
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the state or condition of being prepossessed
-
a prejudice or bias, esp a favourable one
Other Word Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing prepossession
"Common Sense," Vocabulary from the pamphlet
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Common Sense
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Society and Solitude
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This was a literary hallucination, and a remarkable evidence of a favourite position maintained merely by the force of prepossession.
From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Isaac Disraeli
They were soon quite at home on the subject of education, and Dr. Halford added no little to the prepossession he had created by listening to her anxieties respecting Freddy's health with courteous interest.
From Englefield Grange or Mary Armstrong's Troubles by H. B. Paull
And his strong and awful prepossession in favor of the Bible led him, first of all, to go to the book.
From Prisoners of Conscience by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
This gave real pleasure to Ellen, who thought so well of Sir Edward, as to wish he might succeed in rendering the prepossession mutual.
From Mystery and Confidence, Vol. 2 A Tale by Elizabeth Pinchard
It is far more probable that, approaching his subject with a strong prepossession, he was positively blind to anything that told against his own view.
From The Age of Tennyson by Hugh Walker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
