recusatio

Forms

recūsātiō f (genitive recūsātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin recūsō (“to object, reject”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3] The OLD derives recūsō from re- and causa (“cause, case”), and de Vaan lists the verb among the derivatives of that noun, whose further origin is uncertain: he gives a doubtful Proto-Italic *kaud-ta and reports that Walde and Hofmann connect it with cūdō (“to strike”).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it certainly from Cicero on, and perhaps earlier;^[3][5] in the De inventione Cicero says that judicial oratory comprises accusation and defence, or petitionem et recusationem, claim and counter-plea.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As a legal term it is the defendant's counter-plea or objection, in Cicero's De inventione and Pro Cluentio and in Quintilian.^[2][6][7] More generally it is a refusal or objection: Cicero has sine ulla recusatione, without any objection, and wished to take from Crassus every excuse for refusing, and Caesar and Hirtius use it too.^[2][6] Petronius transfers it to the stomach's recusatio, its loathing.^[6][7] The TLL notes that it is found only in prose and never in the plural.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means refusal, rejection, objection,^[8] and medieval British lawyers use it of challenging judges.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a counter-plea and of a refusal.^[2][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of the stomach's loathing.^[6][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it as a term of rhetoric.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A counterplea, demurrer, objection to a charge.^[2][6]
2. A refusal, an expression of unwillingness, objection.^[2][7]
3. Of the stomach, loathing, nausea.^[6][7]

Related words

• recūsō
• causa

Usage notes

Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with excūsātiō.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press