recuse

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English recusen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French recuser,^[5][3] earlier Old French recuser, recorded about 1300 in the OED and in the 13th century in Etymonline,^[5][4][2] and directly borrowed from Latin recūsō (“to make an objection, decline, reject, oppose”),^[5][4][2][6] formed from re- and causa (“cause, lawsuit”).^[5][4][6] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1325, meaning to refuse or be unwilling.^[7] Compare Spanish recusar, Portuguese recusar and Italian ricusare.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To refuse something offered, and to reject or renounce a person or authority: both before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[5][2] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In French the verb had a legal sense from 1332, to object to a legal officer as prejudiced,^[5] and in English it was also used for refusing a judge's jurisdiction over oneself.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) gave it as "to refuse", calling it a legal word.^[8] The general senses of refusing died out by the mid-16th century.^[5][9] The modern reflexive use, in which it is the judge who stands aside, had arisen in French by 1690,^[5] and in English it is recorded from 1829, in a Louisiana law report.^[5] The Oxford Dictionary of English likewise puts the current sense in the early 19th century.^[10] It is chiefly North American and South African,^[5][11] and the verb now mostly occurs in this reflexive form.^[4] Recusal, for the withdrawal itself, followed in 1911, in a South African law journal.^[5][4]

Timeline

• before 1387 – to refuse something offered (obsolete by 1475); to reject or renounce a person or authority; to object to a judge as prejudiced.^[5][2]
• c. 1425 – to refuse to do something (obsolete by 1542).^[5]
• 1529 – to reject an appeal, in a letter of Henry VIII (obsolete).^[5]
• 1829 – reflexive, of a judge or juror, to disqualify oneself.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To disqualify oneself as judge or juror in a case because of a possible prejudice or personal interest: The judge recused herself after learning that her cousin was a witness.^[3][5][11]
2. (law) To challenge a judge or other legal officer as prejudiced.^[3][5][9]
3. (obsolete, 1387–1475) To refuse something offered; to reject.^[5][2][9]
4. (obsolete, 1425–1542) To refuse to do something.^[5][2][9]

Word family

• recusal

Related words

• accuse
• cause
• excuse
• recusancy
• recusant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins