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refuse

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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.
  • 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