sperno, spernere, sprevi, spretus, to sever, separate, remove; to despise, scorn, spurn

Aeneid 1.26-27, 'manet alta mente repostum/iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae/et genus invisum et rapti Ganymedis honores' (there remains stored away in her deep mind the judgment of Paris and the injury resulting from her beauty having been spurned, and the hated race and the glory of Ganymede, having been snatched away). cf. parcus, sparing, spare, scanty, small, slight. Related to Eng., spurious, lacking authenticity or validity in essence or origin; of illegitimate birth. cf. John Milton, Samson Agonistes, l. 390

A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.
This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,
But warned by oft experience. Did not she
Of Timna first betray me, and reveal
The secret wrested from me in her highth
Of nuptial love professed, carrying it straight
To them who had corrupted her, my spies
And rivals?In this other was there found
More faith, who, also in her prime of love,
Spousal embraces, vitiated with gold,
Though offered only, by the scent conceived
Her spurious first-born, Treason against me?
Thrice she assayed, with flattering prayers and sighs,
And amorous reproaches, to win from me
My capital secret, in what part my strength
Lay stored, in what part summed, that she might know;