misprision
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- noun Maladministration of public office.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- noun Criminal neglect of duty or wrongful execution of official duties.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun In law: Criminal neglect in respect to the crime of another: used especially in connection with felonies and treason, to indicate a passive complicity, as by concealment, which falls short of the guilt of a principal or accessory.
- noun More loosely, any grave offense or misdemeanor having no recognized fixed name, as maladministration in an office of public trust: also termed positive misprision, as distinguished from negative misprision, or mere neglect or concealment.
- noun An act of undervaluing or disdaining; scorn; contempt.
Examples
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The most familiar and popular use of the term misprision describes the failure to report a crime ....
It's Called, "Misprison of a Felony." And it's a felony too.
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If you conceal information, then it becomes what we call misprision of a felony.
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The former almost certainly accounts for Steiner's fondness for the word misprision
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A qualm, indeed, came across him, when he considered, as a lawyer, that this father was probably, in the eye of law, a traitor; and that there was an ugly crime on the Statute Book, called misprision of treason.
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"Misreading" (or "misprision," as Bloom would have it) is the motivating force, the ultimate inspiration, behind all poetry (which, in Bloom's critical universe, is synonymous with "literature" and is not to be attributed solely to self-identified poets).
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Given the evidence at their fingertips to justify impeachment proceedings, not the least of which was fraud, the failure of Congress to bring articles of impeachment is tantamount to misprision of felony.
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Parliament was summoned in December, and just before it convened on the sixteenth of January, many of the Duke of Norfolk's relatives were found guilty of misprision of treason for concealing Catherine's lack of chastity.
Note
The word 'misprision' comes from Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, a variant of Old French 'mesprison', from 'mespris', past participle of 'mesprendre', ('to make a mistake'), ultimately from Latin 'prehendere' ('take, seize').
