Underrecognise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To fail to give proper acknowledgment or appreciation to someone's achievements, contributions, or worth
2. Describing a failure to adequately acknowledge, credit, or honor the value of a person or thing
3. Not giving enough recognition to the merit, skill, or importance of someone or something

Etymology: The verb "underrecognise" is a plain English formation: the prefix "under-" attached to "recognise", meaning to fail to recognise something to its full worth or extent. "Under-" is an old native English prefix, descended from Proto-Germanic "under", and it has long been used to mean "insufficiently" or "below the proper level", as in "undervalue" and "underestimate". "Recognise" itself has a longer route. It comes from Latin "recognoscere", built from "re-" (again) and "cognoscere" (to know), so its core sense is "to know again", that is, to identify something seen before. Through Old French and Middle English it reached English, and it kept that sense of identifying as well as the later sense of acknowledging. The root "cognoscere" also gave English "cognise", which is why the two words look so alike.

Synonyms: underrate, underestimate, undervalue

Antonyms: overrate, overestimate