rehusar

Forms

rehusar (first-person singular present rehúso, first-person singular preterite rehusé, past participle rehusado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish refusar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *refūsāre (“to refuse”).^[2][3][1][4] Corominas derives the Vulgar Latin verb from Latin refūsus, the past participle of refundō (“to pour back; to repel”), rather than from a blend of refūtō (“to drive back, refute”) and recūsō (“to reject”), as Thurneysen had proposed.^[2] The DLE, Gómez de Silva and Segura follow the derivation from the participle.^[3][5][6] The DHLF prefers the blend for the French verb, finding the participle less satisfactory, and Bénaben gives the blend too;^[7][8][1] Wiktionary leaves both open.^[7][8][1] The Academy's dictionaries from 1884 to 1899 derived it straight from the last of these Latin verbs.^[9][10]

The same verb is Portuguese refusar, Catalan refusar, Occitan refuzar and French refuser.^[11] Old Castilian also had rebusar, and Navarre has rusar.^[4] Dialects keep a noun meaning “refuse, rejected stock”: rehús in Granada, with an aspirated /h/, reús in Bilbao and Álava, and rebús in Burgos.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is a heading in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), Del que su egual refusare “of him who refuses his equal”.^[12] Corominas dates refusar to Berceo, who already has the modern sense.^[2] In the Libro de Alexandre (c. 1240–1250, in an early-15th-century copy) Hector's little son shrinks from his father's greeting: quísolo saludar, refusó el moçuelo.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used the verb for an animal that balks: in Juan Ruiz it is said of an ass, and in Sem Tob it means “to fall back, lose ground”.^[2] Alfonso X's General estoria (1272–1275) has it for rejecting a person: refusaronle quel non quisieron recebir “they refused him and would not receive him”.^[13] Nebrija rendered rehusar with Latin refugio and recuso,^[14] and Percyvall with English “to refuse”.^[15] The Autoridades defined it as to excuse oneself from something, not to want or accept it.^[16] The DLE now defines it as not wanting or not accepting something, and Moliner adds refusing to grant what is asked.^[3][17]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has the form refusare.^[12]
• c. 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses refusó (in an early-15th-century copy).^[12]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria has refusaron.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has the modern spelling rehusar.^[14][18]
• 1519 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico, as reusar.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy derives the verb from Latin recusare.^[9]
• 1917 – Alemany derives it from refusare, from the supine of refundere.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To refuse or decline: not to want or not to accept something: Rehusó el premio sin dar explicaciones.^[3][17][1]
2. (transitive) To refuse to grant something that is asked for; to deny: Le rehusaron el visado.^[17]

Related words

• refundir
• fundir
• refutar
• recusar
• French refuser

Usage notes

The stressed u takes a written accent in the forms where the stress falls on it, as in aullar: rehúso, rehúsa.^[17][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 976
3. ^ a b c d 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. rehusar
4. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5535
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 600
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 647
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. refuser
8. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. rehusar
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 915
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 858
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7164
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. rehusar
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 407
15. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 203
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 554
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rehusar
18. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. rehusar
19. ^ 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. rehusar
20. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1436