What would the noun form for despise be?
My current two ideas are despite and derision.
According to Google, the etymology of despite is
Middle English (originally used as a noun meaning ‘contempt, scorn’ in the phrase in despite of): from Old French despit, from Latin despectus ‘looking down on,’ past participle (used as a noun) of despicere (see despise).
For derision, I get
late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin derisio(n-), from deridere ‘scoff at.’
Thus, I think that despite makes more sense based on its etymology, but what would be generally accepted?
Best Answer
The noun 'despise' is attested in OED Online in early Modern English:
This sense of 'despise', the obsolete noun,
(op. cit.), is equivalent to a sense of 'despite' now also obsolete or archaic in contemporary Modern English:
(op. cit.)
As suggested, however, the noun form 'despising' continues to be used and understood with the sense given in contemporary Modern English, as
(op. cit.)
The noun form 'despisal' also continues to be used, perhaps more commonly than the noun 'despising':
(op. cit.)
Short of synonyms such as 'disdain', 'contempt', 'scorn' and derivative forms of those (for example, 'contemptuousness'), the noun forms 'despising' and 'despisal' are as close as we come to noun forms of the verb 'to despise'.
Note also that 'disdain' is much closer in meaning to "the noun form" of 'to despise' than is 'derision'.