Forsay

//fə(ɹ)ˈseɪ// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    to forbid; to renounce archaic

    "worldly sovenance he must forsay"

  2. 2
    to deny, gainsay archaic
  3. 3
    to forsake archaic

Synonyms

All synonyms
abjuredenydisavowdisclaimdisownforswear

Example

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"worldly sovenance he must forsay"

Etymology

From Middle English forsayen (“to renounce”), from Old English forseċġan (“to accuse, accuse falsely, slander, speak about, discourse on”), equivalent to for- + say. Cognate Dutch verzeggen (“to deny, forbid”), German Low German verseggen (“to refuse, deny”), German versagen (“to refuse, deny”), Swedish försäga (“to misspeak, say too much”). More at for-, say.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.