recusar

Forms

recusar (first-person singular present recuso, first-person singular preterite recusé, past participle recusado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin recūsō (“to object, refuse”), a learned word taken over in the language of the law.^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from re- and causa (“cause; lawsuit”), like its siblings accūsō and excūsō, the sources of acusar and excusar.^[4][5][6] Gómez de Silva glosses the prefix as “against, back”.^[7]

The same Latin verb was borrowed as Portuguese recusar, Catalan recusar and Italian ricusare.^[8][9][1] ruser is the inherited French outcome, with the loss of the medial consonant.^[1]

The further origin of the Latin noun is unknown: Walde and Hofmann linked it to cūdō (“to strike”), an idea Wiktionary reports with the proposed root Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- (“to strike”), while others doubt an Indo-European source.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Corpus del Diccionario histórico has the participle in the Aragonese Fueros de Aragón of 1247, of a surety rejected because he is not an heir in the place.^[10] In Castilian it appears before 1260 in Alfonso X's Espéculo, of a charter that can be challenged as forged, and around 1275 in his General estoria as recusolo “he refused it”.^[10][11] From the start the verb thus meant to object to something or someone in a lawsuit.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Corominas, who did not know the medieval records, dated the word from 1457 (Rodrigo de Arévalo), with a second record in the Nueva Recopilación of 1554, the date the Breve diccionario gives.^[4][2] The Recopilación already used it of parties who object to members of the royal council, and Covarrubias in 1611 called recusar un juez a term of the courts.^[12][13] In the Americas, colonial documents from 1537 on use it of a party rejecting a suspect judge.^[14]

The Academy has given both senses since Autoridades: not to accept something, and in law to challenge a judge or other official so that he does not take part in the case.^[12][3] From 1843 the Academy added that it applies also to witnesses, and in 1869 it added notaries.^[15][16] Today the legal sense is defined as exercising a recusación, and Moliner extends it to experts and witnesses.^[3][17]

Timeline

• 1247 – the Aragonese Fueros de Aragón use the participle recusado.^[10]
• before 1260 – Alfonso X's Espéculo speaks of a charter being challenged as false.^[10]
• c. 1275 – the General estoria has recusolo.^[11]
• 1457 – Rodrigo de Arévalo's Vergel, Corominas's first record.^[4]
• 1537 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[14]
• 1554 – the Nueva Recopilación uses it of objecting to judges;^[14] recusación follows in 1556.^[4][2]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to refuse”.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records recusar un juez as a legal term.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin recusare.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To refuse to admit or accept something; to reject: Recusó la oferta sin dar explicaciones.^[3][17]
2. (law) To recuse or challenge a judge, expert, witness or official so that he takes no part in the proceedings: La defensa recusó a dos peritos.^[3][17][1]

Word family

• recusación
• recusable
• recusante
• irrecusable

Related words

• acusar
• excusar
• causa
• Latin recūsō
• Portuguese recusar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acusar
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. recusar
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 47
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. recūsō
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. causa
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 597
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2860
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. recusar
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. recusar
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. recusar
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 528
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1250
14. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. recursar
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 618
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 663
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recusar
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 201
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 908