Etymologically
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redarguo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈdar.ɡu.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈdar.ɡu.o][1]

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