misprision


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mis·pri·sion 1

 (mĭs-prĭzh′ən)
n.
1. Neglect in performing the duties of public office.
2. Law The criminal offense of concealing, or neglecting to report or prevent, a felony or act of treason one had knowledge of but did not participate in: misprision of a felony; misprision of treason.
3. Seditious conduct.
4.
a. Misunderstanding or misinterpretation: "to show that everything once viewed as truth and light is no more than shadow and misprision" (Edward Rothstein).
b. A misreading or misinterpretation of a text, especially as a means of distinguishing oneself from a literary predecessor.
[Middle English, illegal act on the part of a public official, from Anglo-Norman, mistake, misdeed, variant of Old French mesprison, from mespris, past participle of mesprendre, to make a mistake : mes-, wrongly; see mis-1 + prendre, to take, seize (from Latin prehendere, prēndere; see ghend- in Indo-European roots).]

mis·pri·sion 2

 (mĭs-prĭzh′ən)
n.
Contempt; disdain.
[mispris(e) (variant of misprize) + -ion.]

misprision

(mɪsˈprɪʒən)
n
(Law)
a. a failure to inform the proper authorities of the commission of an act of treason
b. the deliberate concealment of the commission of a felony
[C15: via Anglo-French from Old French mesprision error, from mesprendre to mistake, from mes- mis-1 + prendre to take]

misprision

(mɪsˈprɪʒən)
n
1. (Law) contempt
2. failure to appreciate the value of something
[C16: from misprize]

mis•pri•sion1

(mɪsˈprɪʒ ən)

n.
1. a neglect or violation of official duty by one in office.
2. failure by one not an accessory to prevent or notify the authorities of treason or felony.
3. a contempt against the government or courts, as sedition or contempt of court.
4. a mistake; misunderstanding.
[1375–1425; late Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French mesprision=mes- mis-1 + prision < Latin pr(eh)ēnsiōnem; see prehension]

mis•pri•sion2

(mɪsˈprɪʒ ən)

n.
contempt or scorn.
[1580–90; misprize + -ion, on the model of misprision1]

misprision

improper conduct or neglectful behavior, especially by a person who holds public office.
See also: Crime
Mentioned in ?
References in classic literature ?
Borthrop Trumbull really knew nothing about old Featherstone's will; but he could hardly have been brought to declare any ignorance unless he had been arrested for misprision of treason.
View in context
Following her conviction, defendant challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, argued that the Fifth Amendment barred her misprision conviction, and contended the District Court erred by refusing defendant's proposed "mere-presence" jury charge.
8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Digest: Feb. 14
Misprision of a felony criminalizes having knowledge of a felony and concealing it.
SHOULD MISPRISION OF A FELONY BE CONSIDERED A CRIME INVOLVING MORAL TURPITUDE?
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods for misprision of treason, a crime which consisted of someone witnessing treason and failing to report it.
5 amazing things you probably didn't know about Effingham; The village may be small but some of its residents have changed the course of history
Despite Trump's insistence the dossier is "fake news" [it was after all financed by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign], the intelligence community has "strong reason to take it cautiously but seriously, especially where it alleges collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians." If only some of the dossier's "damning allegations are true," Congress could have a "near-airtight case for impeaching and convicting" Trump on grounds of treason or misprision of truth.
REALLY? SERIOUSLY?
exposure, (94) assault, (95) misprision of felony, (96) false
WHY DEPORTING IMMIGRANTS FOR "CRIMES INVOLVING MORAL TURPITUDE" IS NOW UNCONSTITUTIONAL
This misprision could no doubt be ascribed to the wealth and variety of post-medieval 'portraits' of Jesus.
Pagan influences: Anthony Cutler enjoys a combative study of the links between ancient and Christian art
(3) In The Anxiety of Influence (1973, 1997), Harold Bloom defines or rather amends misprision to mean "a doing amiss (and taking amiss) of what the precursors did, but 'amiss' has a dialectical meaning here.
Adaptation, abjection, and homecoming in Saramago's Ensaio sobre a cegueira and Meirelles's Blindness
In November--eight months after Heald, Paul and Tom Whitehead were added to the indictment--Rickenbach offered to plead guilty to a single count of misprision (that is, failing to report a crime) if he could be guaranteed a probation-only sentence.
In previous episodes..
And this particular offense is called "misprision of treason."
A dangerous precedent: if our constitutions "natural-born citizen" presidential requirement can be ignored, what about the Second Amendment?
Poetic influence goes beyond "source-study," "the history of ideas," and "the patterning of images"; instead, "poetic misprision," Blooms preferred term, "is necessarily the study of the life-cycle of the poet-as-poet" (7).
Hawthorne and influence: reframing tradition
(276) At common law, there was the offense of misprision of felony, which criminalized failures to report planned crimes and crimes that had already been perpetrated.
Reinterpreting the mental element in criminal complicity: change of normative position theory cannot rationalize the current law

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