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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PREPOSSESSING

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pronounce PREPOSSESSING:

PREE puh ZESS ing
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connect this word to others:

Prepossessing people had you at hello. They're so attractive or engaging that it's as if they've already won you over just by showing up.

(Source)

At the heart of prepossessing is possess, which (probably) breaks down into Latin bits meaning "power" (potis) and "sit" (sedere). The original sense of "to possess" in Latin (possidere) may have been owning real estate: having it as your seat of power, or sitting there powerfully, sort of. From there you can see how the figurative meaning developed: think of how you possess certain qualities (as if those qualities are sitting there in your personal power), or how spirits or demons are said to possess someone (as if those spirits are sitting there exercising power over their victim).

From possidere, let's pull out sedere, "to sit," and recall some other English words that derive from it.

We've got familiar ones, like siege, sedan, preside, sedate, sediment, subside, assess, and session. And some fancier ones, like

1. __sidi__: literally "sitting in (a hiding place)," and today meaning "secret, sneaky, and tricky;"

and 2. __sidu___: literally "sitting by (something all the time)," and today meaning "hardworking, diligent, effortful."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

In its earliest senses in English, "prepossess" meant "to take possession of beforehand" and "to touch someone's mind or heart deeply beforehand, or to preoccupy someone's mind."

These days, we stick with that latter meaning, and we almost always use an adjective form: "prepossessing."

Prepossessing people and things are so beautiful, charming, or wonderful that they seem to win your heart immediately, even before you have much experience with them.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a prepossessing woman;" "The city is glittering and prepossessing."

Other forms: 

None are very common today. But we've got an adverb, "prepossessingly;" and a noun, "prepossessingness."

Yeah, "prepossessingness" is hideous, but the nicer-sounding "prepossession" usually means something else: a bias or a prejudice.

how to use it:

Pick the formal, complimentary, somewhat rare word "prepossessing" when you want to call extra attention to someone's immediate, obvious beauty and charm.

Compared to words like "beautiful" (which often sounds feminine) and "handsome" (which often sounds masculine), "prepossessing" is gender-neutral. 

We most often apply it to people, characters, and their looks, as in "Mila Kunis plays the prepossessing Cindy in Extract. Actually, I don't think she's capable of playing anyone unprepossessing."

Sometimes we apply it to people's personalities, behaviors, or qualities, as in "He plays piano with prepossessing grace" or "Hugh Grant plays characters with a prepossessing stutter and self-deprecation." Here's the New York Times: "The campaign manager spoke... with a veteran's prepossessing self-assurance."

And some writers use "prepossessing" to describe non-human things, like food, cities, buildings, publications, and musical performances.

examples:

"He was a young man of a very prepossessing appearance, tall and handsome enough for a hero of romance."
  — Mary Brunton, Discipline, 1814

"[Ralph Maccio has] parlayed a prepossessing personality into comically self-deprecating performances as himself on the TV shows 'Entourage' and 'How I Met Your Mother.'"   
  — Erik Piepenburg, New York Times, 12 February 2016

has this page helped you understand "prepossessing"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "prepossessing" without saying "personable" or "alluring."

try it out:

When you need a gentle way to describe something as unattractive, either in appearance or personality, you could say it's not prepossessing, or that it's unprepossessing.

And this is a pretty standard way to use this word. Let's see some examples:

—From the New York Times: "One of the exhibition's least prepossessing objects is a terra-cotta sarcophagus lid."

—Also from the Times: "There is nothing prepossessing about the fried artichokes served at La Vara."

—From the Guardian: "The bank director would surely have something to say about the arrival in his house of Scandinavia's least prepossessing Christmas tree."

—From the Economist: "Jakarta, perhaps South-East Asia’s least prepossessing capital."

—And from a novel by Nathaniel Parker Willis: "He is much below the middle size, and with his white hat and long chocolate frock-coat, was far from prepossessing in his appearance."

With these examples in mind, talk about the least prepossessing dish or meal you've cooked this year, the least prepossessing movie character you can think of, or the least prepossessing item in your wardrobe or home.




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Name the Game!"

I'll share some tidbits about a particular board game with a one-word name, and you try to name it. 

You can scroll all the way down to see the game's real name. Maybe you'll come up with the correct name, or one that’s just as apt!

Try this one today:

The game's name is 1 syllable.

It starts with T.

"Cultivate tomorrow, today... Farm, explore, and fish on a cozy alien world... [Earn] badges, abilities, animals, upgrades, new locations, and space for farming via tilled soil."

review this word:

1. The precise opposite of PREPOSSESSING is UNPREPOSSESSING. But a pretty close opposite of PREPOSSESSING is

A. TREACLY: overly sweet.
B. DOWDY: plain or ugly in a dull way.
C. DEWY: innocent and new to the world.

2. Writing for the Guardian, Andrew Anthony described the actress Rosamund Pike as "prepossessing," with, more specifically, "_____."

A. a perfectly decent career
B. [a] fear that her intellect might outshine her emotions
C. luminous beauty and an aristocratically composed manner




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. C

From the game: Tend.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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