repugnant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English repugnaunt,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French repugnant, also Anglo-Norman repungnant,^[4][5][2] and partly directly borrowed from Latin repugnāns (“resisting, contrary”), the present participle of repugnō (“to fight back, resist; be inconsistent”).^[4][6][7][8] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back, against”) and pugnō (“to fight”),^[6][7][5][9] the source of pugnacious;^[7][10] Etymonline traces the Latin verb for fighting to Proto-Indo-European *peuk- (“to prick”).^[6] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from 1292, already meaning opposed, inconsistent and contradictory.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Contrary, contradictory, in a record of 1425 in the Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council;^[4] a medical text of perhaps before 1425 has it of a medicine working against something.^[4][2] Barnhart dates the word to about 1385, in Usk's Testament of Love,^[7][12] and Etymonline to the early 15th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Like its Latin source, the word first described things fighting against or contradicting each other: in Middle English it meant hostile or opposed, and contradictory or inconsistent.^[2][4] The sense of resistance is now rare and chiefly poetic,^[4] and Johnson (1755) still gave "disobedient" and "contrary; opposite" as its meanings, quoting Hamlet for the first.^[13] The contradiction sense lives on in law, of a provision or statute incompatible with another.^[5][14] The meaning "distasteful, objectionable to someone" is dated 1633 in the OED and 1777 in Etymonline,^[4][6] and the now usual sense "offensive, loathsome, arousing disgust" only from 1879.^[4][6] French went the same way: Old French repugnant meant opposed in the 13th century, and French répugnant meant inspiring disgust from the mid 18th century.^[4] In English, Hoad dates the sense "distasteful to" to the 18th century.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1425 – of a medicine, working against something (obsolete by 1590).^[4][2]
• 1425 – contrary, contradictory, of things in relation to each other.^[4]
• c. 1443 – offering resistance, hostile, antagonistic; in Reginald Pecock.^[4][2]
• c. 1475 – noun, the contrary or opposite, a contradictory term in logic.^[4]
• 1625 – noun, a resister (obsolete).^[4]
• 1633 – distasteful or objectionable to a person.^[4]
• 1879 – offensive, loathsome, arousing disgust.^[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Arousing strong dislike or disgust; offensive or repulsive: He found their cruelty to the animals repugnant.^[15][16][17]
2. Contrary or incompatible; inconsistent, especially in law of a provision that conflicts with another: a bylaw repugnant to the statute.^{[5][17][16][14]}
3. (archaic) Offering resistance; hostile or antagonistic.^[17][5][4]

Noun

1. (rare) The contrary of something; in logic, a term or proposition incompatible with another.^[4][14]

Word family

• repugnantly
• repugnancy
• unrepugnant

Related words

• repugnance
• repugn
• pugnacious
• impugn
• oppugn
• pugilist

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster