refragor

Forms

refrāgor (present infinitive refrāgārī, perfect active refrāgātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin suffrāgor (“to vote for, support”), formed by putting re- (“back, against”) in place of the prefix of that verb.^[2][1]

The origin of the base suffrāgium (“vote”) is uncertain.^[3] De Vaan takes the family to rest on a verb or noun ⟨*sub-frāg-⟩ “support” from Proto-Italic *-frāg-; since the oldest meanings all concern voting for or against a candidate, he finds some support for the view, argued in detail by Vaahtera, that it belongs to frangō (“to break”), with the voters shouting their support, though fragor (“din”) is not found before Lucretius.^[3] He rejects as too fanciful Szemerényi's derivation from a root meaning “hind part”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first author is Pomponius,^[3] who uses the active form in a line from his comedies: refrāgant prīmō, suffrāgābunt post, “at first they vote against, later they will vote for”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

L&S calls it a term of public life, used of opposing a candidate or someone seeking something.^[4] In the Pro Murena Cicero says that a law had worked against a candidacy, and elsewhere that he does not want to seem to oppose a close friend.^[2][4] From this it came to mean acting against anyone's interests, as in Curtius and Vitruvius.^[2]

L&S notes that the wider sense “resist, militate against”, with a thing as subject, is not in Cicero:^[4] Pliny the Elder says a kind of lettuce works against sexual desire, and Quintilian speaks of a talent that does not resist.^[2][4] The jurists use it of legal points or of a person's will that stand in the way.^[2] Köbler lists it in Christian and early medieval texts, among them councils, charters, formulas and the Lex Ribuaria.^[5] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for “oppose, resist, contest, object”.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of opposing candidates.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of opposing an honour.^[4][5]
• c. 20 BC–AD 30 – Velleius uses it without an object.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a plant acting against desire.^[2][5]
• before 212 AD – Papinian uses it of legal points that stand in the way.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To vote against, oppose (a candidate); to work against the interests of.^[2][4]
2. To act to someone's disadvantage.^[2]
3. (of things) To militate against, resist, stand in the way of.^[2][4]
4. (law) To be an obstacle (to a claim or a will).^[2]

Usage notes

It is the opposite of suffrāgor, ^[4] and Pomponius plays on the pair.^[2] An active form refrāgō is also found.^[2][7]

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 o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften