KJV Word of the Day: Gainsaying

My KJV strange word of the day today is "gainsaying," taken from Acts 10.29: Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?

From the King James Bible Word book: GAINSAY, GAINSAYING, GAINSAYERS. “Gainsay” is not yet obsolete, but it has become a purely literary word, slightly archaic. It is the only word that remains of a set of compound verbs which were common in the middle ages. These verbs were formed by prefixing “gain” or “again” (both meaning “against”) to the verb root: “again-call” (to revoke), “again-rise” (to rebel), “gainstand” (to resist).

“Gainsay” means to speak against, hence to deny, contradict, oppose. RSV replaces the term in each of its five KJ appearances. “Without gainsaying” (Acts 10:29) is “without objection.” “A disobedient and gainsaying people” (Romans 10:21) is “a disobedient and contrary people.” For “perished in the gainsaying of Core” (Jude 11) RSV reads “perish in Korah’s rebellion.” “… able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9) is more accurately translated “… able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it.” In Luke 21:15 RSV follows the ancient Greek manuscripts, in which the order of the words differs from the medieval manuscripts available to the KJ translators; it therefore changes “which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist,” to read “which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.”