Monday, November 18, 2013

maugre

maugre \MAW-ger\, preposition:

in spite of; notwithstanding.

But the angel in the dream did, and, maugre Plain Talk, put quite other notions into the candle-maker.
-- Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man, 1857
I protest, / Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence, / Despite thy victor-sword and fire-new fortune, / Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor / False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father, / Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince, / And from th'extremest upward of thy head / To the descent and dust beneath thy feet, / A most toad-spotted traitor.
-- William Shakespeare, King Lear, 1623

Maugre comes from the Middle French word that literally meant "spite, ill-will."

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