# prepossess
## English
### Etymology

From pre- (prefix meaning ‘before, earlier in time’) +‎ possess.
* Late Latin prepossessus (“seized beforehand”)

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌpɹiːpəˈzɛs/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˌpɹipəˈzɛs/
* Rhymes: -ɛs
* Hyphenation: pre‧pos‧sess

### Verb

prepossess (third-person singular simple present prepossesses, present participle prepossessing, simple past and past participle prepossessed) (transitive)
* Chiefly followed by by or with: to preoccupy (someone) in an emotional or mental way, so as to preclude other things.
** 1639, Thomas Fuller, “The Church-story during this Kings Reigne; The Remarkable Ruine of Rodolphus Patriarch of Antioch”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book II, page 70:[I]ndeed the Legate [Alberic of Ostia] came not vvith a virgin-judgement, but raviſhed vvith prejudice; being prepoſſeſſed vvith this intent to diſpoſſeſſe him [Rodolphus, or Ralph of Domfront] of his place.
** 1642 April, John Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 172:A ſurer ſigne of his loſt ſhame he could not have given, then ſeeking thus unſeaſonably to prepoſſeſſe Men of his modeſty.
** 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 105:[…] I vvas no novice in theſe matters, ſince he had taken me out of a common bavvdy-houſe: nor had I ſaid one thing to prepoſſeſs him of my virginity; […]
* (by extension) To cause (someone) to have a previous inclination against, for, or to something; to bias or prejudice; specifically, to induce in (someone) a favourable opinion beforehand, or at the outset.
** c. 1631 (date written; published 1654), Thomas Fuller, “A Comment on Ruth”, in John Eglington Bailey, William E[dward] A[rmytage] Axon, editors, The Collected Sermons of Thomas Fuller, D.D. […], volume I, London: The Gresham Press; Unwin Brothers, […]; Pickering & Chatto, […], published 1891, →OCLC, chapter II, page 79:So Juſtice, which ſhould runne downe like a ſtreame, though it ariſeth out of a pure Fountaine, out of the breaſt of a ſincere and incorrupted Judge; yet if formerly it hath paſſed through the Mines of Gold and Silver, I meane, through bad Servants, who have taken bribes to prepoſſeſſe the Judge their Maſter with the prejudice of falſe informations, Juſtice hereby may be ſtrangely perverted and corrupted.
** 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 71:M. Krempe was a little squat man, with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his doctrine. Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy.
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 68:Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. […] She looked around expectantly, and recognizing Mrs. Cooke's maid, who had stepped forward to relieve hers of the shawls, Miss Thorn greeted her with a smile which greatly prepossessed us in her favor.
* (obsolete)
** To cause (someone) to think a certain way.
*** a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “Touching the Excellency of the Humane Nature in General”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC, section I, page 69:[T]his brief Inventory I have here given as preparatory to vvhat follovvs, and to pre-poſſeſs the Reader, 1. That a natural Indagation according to the light of natural Reaſon touching the Origination of ſuch a Creature as this, is no contemptible or unvvorthy enquiry.
*** 1738, [John] Gay, “Fable III. The Baboon and the Poultry. To a Levee-hunter.”, in Fables, volume II, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton, […]; and T[homas] Cox, […], →OCLC, pages 17–18:VVith partial eye vve're apt to ſee / The man of noble pedigree. / VVe're prepoſſeſt my lord inherits / In ſome degree his grandſire's merits; / For thoſe vve find upon record, / But find him nothing but my lord.
*** 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 217:[…] Fanny and Mrs. Ferrars were both strongly prepossessed that neither she nor her daughters were such kind of women as Fanny would like to associate with.
** To occupy or possess (something) beforehand.
*** 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “Of the Second Punick Warre”, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 1st book, §. XI (Strange Reports of the Roman Victories in Spaine, before Asdrubal the Sonne of Amilcar, Followed thence His Brother Hannibal into Italie), page 478:All paſſages out of their campe Martius [Gaius Lucius Marcius Septimus] hath prepoſſeſſed, ſo that there is no vvay to eſcape, ſaue by leaping dovvne the Rampart: […]
*** a. 1717 (date written), Robert South, “Sermon II. Job viii. 13.”, in Five Additional Volumes of Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume X, London: […] Charles Bathurst, […], published 1744, →OCLC, page 42:Hope is that vvhich antedates, and prepoſſeſſes a future good; that ſets it in the vievv of the vvill, vvhich alone puts all the faculties in motion.
** (reflexive, chiefly passive voice) Chiefly followed by of or with: to cause (oneself) to obtain possession of something beforehand, or ahead of someone else.
    to prepossess oneself of land

#### Derived terms

* prepossessed (adjective)
* prepossessedly
* prepossessedness
* prepossessing (adjective)
* prepossessingly
* prepossessingness
* prepossession
* prepossessor
* unprepossessing
* unprepossessingly
* unprepossessingness

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “prepossess, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “prepossess, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* “prepossess”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.