redarguo

Forms

redarguō (present infinitive redarguere, perfect active redarguī, supine redargūtum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + arguō (“to make clear, prove”).^[2][3][1] The prefix appears in its older form ⟨red-⟩ before the vowel.^[3]

arguō is probably a verb made from an adjective meaning “bright”, continued in argūtus; this goes back to Proto-Italic *argu- (“bright”) and Proto-Indo-European *h2erǵ-u- (“white”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit अर्जुन (árjuna-, “white, light”) and Ancient Greek ἄργυρος (árguros, “silver”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

According to Festus, Scipio the Younger already used it, pronouncing it with ⟨e⟩ in the first syllable;^[3] in the surviving texts it appears from the Rhetorica ad Herennium on, meaning to prove a statement untrue, to refute it.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it about twenty times, both of convicting a person of falsehood, redargue me, si mentior (“prove me wrong if I lie”), and of refuting arguments;^[3][2] it is paired with refellō and revincō, and opposed to probāre, “to prove”.^[3][6] Virgil has a day that will refute words, and Suetonius has Augustus refuting libellous pamphlets.^[2] Things can be its subject too: Cicero says that the prosperity of the wicked disproves the power of the gods.^[2][6] Gellius construes it with an accusative and infinitive.^[2]

It is frequent in the Bible and in Christian writers,^[3] where it renders Ancient Greek ἐλέγχω (elénkhō) and takes a genitive of the charge: Lactantius uses it for convicting of ignorance, and the Vulgate of being convicted by the law as transgressors.^[3][6] Ecclesiastical Latin also uses it for admonishing someone and urging them to penance.^[7]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of a speech that can be refuted.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of persons and of arguments.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of refuting words.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it with an accusative and infinitive.^[2][5]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it with a genitive, “to convict of”.^[6][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of those convicted by the law.^[6][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To convict (a person) of falsehood, to prove wrong.^[2][6]
2. To refute, disprove (a statement or charge);^[2][6] with an accusative and infinitive, to prove (something) untrue.^[2]
3. To disprove the existence of; to show up (something false).^[2]
4. (Late Latin) With a genitive, to convict of.^[6]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To admonish, to urge to penance.^[7]

Word family

• redargūtiō

Usage notes

Macrobius notes that the form is redarguere, not rearguere.^[3] Lewis and Short give refellō and refūtō as synonyms.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson