Strongly disliked or looked down upon with contempt and disgust.
From Old French despire, from Latin despicere (de- 'down' + specere 'to look'). Literally 'to look down upon,' the meaning evolved to mean intense dislike and contempt.
The etymology of 'despised'—literally 'looked down upon'—reveals how humans use physical height as a metaphor for worth, a pattern that appears in almost every language on Earth, from calling good people 'upstanding' to bad ones 'low.'
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