Misbeholden

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Feeling an unwelcome sense of indebtedness that carries negative connotations
2. Experiencing an obligation that is perceived as a burden rather than a privilege
3. Subject to an unpleasant or unwanted indebtedness or obligation

Etymology: "Misbeholden" is a formation from the verb "beholden," which is itself an old past participle of "behold" in its now-obsolete sense of "to be obliged to someone, to owe." "Beholden" appears in English by the 1300s, and it meant simply "bound or indebted" long before it came to suggest the faint resentment we now hear in it. The prefix "mis-" was attached to "beholden" to mean "wrongly or unfortunately" obligated, so the word describes someone owed a debt they never wanted or would rather not have. The prefix mis- in this sense is an Old English element meaning "amiss" or "wrongly," found in many older words such as "misdeed" and "mislead." Its use with "beholden" is rare and largely literary, which is why many dictionaries record it only briefly. Its meaning follows the pattern of the base word, so an obligation that is "mis-beholden" is one that is unfortunate or unwelcome to the person bearing it.