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To gainsay someone is to say they are wrong, or to deny that a thing is true. It is an old, rather grand verb. You will find it in books, speeches, and the set phrase there is no gainsaying it — nobody can honestly disagree. You would sound strange saying it in a shop. The first piece, gain-, here means 'against', as in against; it is not the gain of money. So gainsay is 'say against'. People still understand it, but they rarely reach for it unless they want a formal or slightly old-fashioned tone. In ordinary talk, deny or disagree does the job.
否認、反駁（書面、古雅）
組成From Middle English gainsayen, 'to say against': gain- (against) + say. The gain- is the old against-prefix, not profit.
同家族的字
- saythe second half is the ordinary verb say
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
gainsayverb/ɡeɪnˈseɪ/
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formalTo say something in contradiction to.
- […]vve are able with playne demonſtration to proue, and vvith reaſon to perſvvade that in tymes paſt our fayth vvas alike, that then vve preached thinges correſpondent vnto the forme of faith already publiſhed of vs, ſo that none in this behalfe can repyne or gayneſay vs.
- The supreme court, therefore, may assume jurisdiction over subjects and between parties, not allowed by the constitution, and there is no power in the federal government to gainsay it.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。