gainsay
\GEYN-sey, geyn-SEY\
verb
1. to deny, dispute, or contradict.
2. to speak or act against; oppose.
Quotes
'…What judge shall gainsay that?' He swayed his body round on his motionless and sturdily planted legs, veering upon the Chancellor and the knight in turn, as if he challenged them to gainsay him who had been an attorney for ten years…
-- Ford Madox Ford, The Fifth Queen, 1906
Origin
Gainsay entered English around 1300. As in a number of now-obsolete terms including gaincope, gainstand, and gainturn, the prefix gain- means "against" or "in opposition" in this term.
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