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

In attempting this the writer does so not from the standpoint of the theologian or the professional clergyman, but from that of a liberal thinker with mind unfettered by any prepossession.

From The Arena Volume 18, No. 93, August, 1897 by Various

Above all, the critic should be impartial, and by no means allow himself to be biassed by either prejudice or prepossession, whether personal or political.

From Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 95, August 23, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

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 Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston

We must approach the whole subject of split or duplicated personalities with no prepossession against the possibility of any given arrangement or division of the total mass of consciousness which exists within us.

From Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death by Myers, F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry)

Such remarks shew the strong prepossession which existed in favour of the Buccaneers, and an eagerness undistinguishing and determined after the extraordinary.

From History of the Buccaneers of America by Burney, James

Related Words

• bias