reiecto

Forms

rēiectō (present infinitive rēiectāre, perfect active rēiectāvī); first conjugation^[1][2] Some manuscripts and late texts spell it reiactō.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin rēiciō (“to throw back”) + -tō, a frequentative.^[1][4][5] The TLL notes that it could also be formed from ⟨re-⟩ and iactō (“to throw”), and that the manuscripts do not allow the two to be kept apart.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Lucretius: montēs … reiectant vōcēs ad sīdera mundī, “the mountains throw the voices back to the stars of the sky”.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

It means to throw back, often with force or against one's will.^[1][3] Silius Italicus uses it of foaming sea water thrown back,^[4][7] and of a wolf that lets fall from its teeth the prey that is still breathing.^[1][2] It also means to spit out: in a letter in Fronto's correspondence, Marcus Aurelius soothes his throat with honeyed water that he takes in and spits out,^[1][7] and the Historia Augusta uses it of bringing up cheese.^[6][4]

The TLL traces Italian rigettare, Sicilian ⟨arrijittari⟩ and Portuguese rejeitar to it.^[3]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of mountains echoing voices.^[3][2][8]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of water and of a wolf's prey.^[1][2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw back violently or repeatedly; to repulse, beat off.^[1][2]
2. To throw back (a sound), to echo.^[9][6]
3. To spit out, let fall (from the mouth); to vomit.^[1][9][6]

Related words

• iactō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.