If today you ask passers-by on the streets of any big city what charity is, they will surely tell you that to look after is to show someone neglect, to show him that this person has a low social status. However, people confuse two related concepts - contempt and contempt.
Let's talk about them in more detail.
What happens when we despise…
When we despise, we feel negative emotions towards some person, we are full of arrogance and pride, so we allow someone to be disrespected. We consider the deed of a person to be vile, vile, low, and we believe (deservedly or not) that the person himself is worthy of our contempt.
Thus, the prefix pre- indicates that the speaker would like to distance himself from the phenomenon that he considers unseemly.
To look down is to show mercy
However, another word has a completely different meaning, this word "to look down on". As we can see, a completely different prefix is used here.
In this case, there is a completely different meaning of the word. This expression comes from the verb"to despise". To look after is to provide help and care.
Therefore, in Russia, charitable organizations have long been called houses of care and charity. In general, the word “charity” itself appeared much later.
It turns out that so much depends on just one letter in the word prefix. Meaning is being conveyed. It's one thing to despise someone (like a stray puppy or an orphan) or to despise someone (a person you don't respect for one reason or another).
Note that these words have the same root. Their root semantically goes back to the verb "to see" - that is, to see. Therefore, to despise is not to want to see someone, to look at someone, is next to someone, and to despise is, on the contrary, to look after someone, giving him support and help. That is, to wish that the one you are looking after was close to you.
The Meaning of Charity
Despite the fact that this word has long been considered obsolete in dictionaries, its meaning is very important for society. After all, what is charity, if not social support, which is so necessary for all of us at any historical time?!
And even though today not all of our fellow citizens understand the true meaning of this expression, it still remains significant.
In fact, the task of each of us is to understand the meaning of each expression of our native language, because thanks to the language, not only the character and way of thinking of an individual, but of the whole nation as a whole is formed.
