recusar

Forms

recusar (first-person singular present recuso, first-person singular preterite recusei, past participle recusado)^[1] Houaiss's historical forms include refusase (15th century) and refusar (1563); refusar survives as a rare synonym.^[2][3] Morais (1813) and Vieira still define recusar by refusar.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin recūsō (“to object, to refuse”), a learned word.^[2][6][1][7] The Latin verb is formed from re- and causa (“cause, case”), and was first a legal term, “to put in an objection”.^[8][1]

The Latin word is also Galician recusar, Spanish recusar, Catalan recusar and Italian ricusare.^[1][9] In French it lost its -c- and gave the popular French ruser.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 14th century, with the sense “to reject, not accept”.^[2][6] The Livro dos Mártires of 1513 has it.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau's examples are all of declining an offer: an office, an embassy, a title, a just condition.^[11] Morais (1813) adds the legal recusar o juiz “to reject a judge as biased”, from the Ordenações.^[4] Aulete records the senses “to refuse to grant” and, with an infinitive, “to refuse to do”.^[12] In law it now also means to reject a witness, and reflexively to stand down from a case.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records.^[2][6]
• 15th century – first record of recusação.^[6]
• 1513 – recusar in the Livro dos Mártires.^[10]
• 1592 – Recuso in a private letter.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais records recusar o juiz; first record of recusante.^[4][6]
• 1836 – irrecusável and recusável in Constâncio's dictionary.^[6]
• 1858 – first record of the noun recusa.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To refuse, decline, not to accept what is offered: Recusou o convite para jantar.^[2][14][1]
2. To deny, not to grant what is asked: recusar ajuda a alguém.^[2][3]
3. (reflexive) To refuse (to do something): recusou-se a responder.^[2][3]
4. Not to admit or accept;^[2][4][1] (law) to object to a judge or a witness, to recuse.^[2][4][1]
5. (law, reflexive) To stand down from a case.^[1]

Word family

• recusa
• recusação
• recusante
• recusável
• irrecusável

Related words

• acusar
• escusar
• refusar
• causa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. recusar
3. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. recusar
4. ^ a b c d e Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 572
5. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 139
6. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. recusar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. recusar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. recuso
9. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. recusar
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. recusar
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. recusar
12. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. recusar
13. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. recusar
14. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. recusar