undersay

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ say.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌndə(ɹ)ˈseɪ/

• Audio (US):

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Verb

undersay (third-person singular simple present undersays, present participle undersaying, simple past and past participle undersaid)

1. (obsolete) To say by way of derogation or contradiction.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC:

     They say, they con to heaven the highway; But by my soul I dare undersay, They never set foot on that same troad, But balke their right way, and strayen abroad.

2. To understate.
   • 1899, W.D. Howells, “The New Poetry”, in The North American Review, volume 168, page 586:

     My words undersay it, of course; I mean something rarer than critical, something better than ethical, and perhaps I had better retreat upon such a word as spiritual.

   • 1913, Laurence Jerrold, The French and the English, page 60:

     How to undersay things when so many oversay them is one thing learnt.

   • 1981, Patricia A. Moody, Writing Today: A Rhetoric and Handbook, page 120:

     Try not to overqualify or undersay what you have to say.

Anagrams

• Reynauds