Etymologically
Log in

repulso

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 15:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

repulsō (present infinitive repulsāre, perfect active repulsāvī, supine repulsātum); first conjugation, transitive[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin repellō (“to drive back”) + -tō, a frequentative.[1][2] The TLL also allows a formation from re- and pulsō (“to beat, strike”).[3] Its base repellō is a compound of pellō (“to push, strike”),[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *pl-n(e)-h₂- (“to approach”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Lucretius, who describes hills that “beat back” words to one another, that is, echo them.[1][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius also uses it figuratively, of a heart that rejects true words.[1][7][8] In Ambrose it has the literal sense of beating back attacks again and again.[5][2] A Greek–Latin glossary renders it with Ancient Greek ἀντιπαραβάλλω (antiparabállō).[3]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of echoing hills and of rejecting words.[1][9]
  • c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of driving back attacks.[5][2][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drive or beat back again and again; of sounds, to echo.[1][5]
  2. To reject, repudiate.[1][7]

References

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