refuse

refuse¹ decline

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rɪˈfjuːz/, /rəˈfjuːz/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English refusen, borrowed from Old French refuser (“to reject, avoid”),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *refūsāre, a frequentative from the past participle of refundere (“to pour back, give back”),^[2][3][5] from re- (“back”) and fundere (“to pour”).^[2] Hoad, NODE and the SOED see instead an alteration of recūsāre (“to refuse”) under the influence of refūtāre “to refute”, and Barnhart allows a confusion with refūtāre.^[4][6][7][3] See refund.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To reject or decline: before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder according to Barnhart, about 1300 in Etymonline.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive “refuse to do something” is from the late 14th century.^[2] Hoad records an obsolete sense “to avoid” and “to renounce” in the 14th century.^[4] To repudiate or disown is from the early 15th century but now obsolete, as in Juliet's “Deny thy father and refuse thy name”;^[2] God refuse me! was once a fashionable oath.^[2] To decline to grant is from the 16th century,^[4] and of a horse, to fail to jump, from the 1520s.^[2] Refusal is from 1474.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to reject.^[2]
• late 14th century – to refuse to do something.^[2]
• 1474 – refusal.^[3]
• 1520s – of a horse.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To say that one will not do something.
2. To not accept something offered.
3. To not give or allow something to someone: refuse permission.
4. Of a horse, to stop instead of jumping a fence.

refuse² rubbish

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈref.juːs/^[1]

Etymology

The noun is Middle English refous, borrowed from Old French refus (“waste, rubbish; refusal”), from the verb refuser (see the first word).^[3][2][5] Hoad and the SOED suggest Old French refusé, the past participle.^[4][7] The adjective may be from Old French refuse, perhaps confused with refus “refugee, refuge”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An outcast: before 1338, in Mannyng's Chronicle, in Barnhart, the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Waste or rubbish is from the mid-14th century in Etymonline and about 1390 in Barnhart;^[2][3] the OED's first quotation is from about 1440.^[8] The worthless part of a class of people, the dregs, is from 1603.^[8] The adjective, despised or rejected, is from about 1385, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde,^[3][2] and thrown aside as worthless from 1425.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1338 – an outcast.^[3]
• c. 1385 – the adjective, rejected.^[3]
• c. 1390 – waste, rubbish.^[3]
• 1603 – the dregs of society.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Things thrown away as worthless; rubbish or garbage.

Adjective

1. Thrown away as worthless.

Related words

• refusal
• refute
• refund

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press