gainsay

内村鑑三がRepresentative Men of Japanで取り上げた３人目は二宮尊徳でした。
The discourse ended. The governor in shame and dismay, said after a long silence, "I should say it is impossible to gainsay your argument."
この講話は、荒廃した多くの領地を実りのある耕作地にした尊徳が領主に認められ、国家老達を相手に行ったもので引用するには長すぎるので省略しました。私が覚えたい単語は "gainsay" です。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to say that someone is wrong or that something is not true: You may not have liked her, but no one could gainsay her determination.
・Vocabulary.com: Gainsay, a verb, means "contradict" or "speak out against." When you challenge authority, you gainsay, as in teachers don't like it when unruly students gainsay them.
Gainsay comes from an Old English word that means "contradict" or "say against," as in, no one dared gainsay the principal, who is well-known for giving detention to students who so much as frown at him. If you know someone who constantly corrects others, tells them that they're wrong, and says, "That's not true," more than anyone else, you have first-hand experience with the art of the gainsay.
"against" + "say" として覚える事にしよう。