rejeitar

Forms

rejeitar (first-person singular present rejeito, first-person singular preterite rejeitei, past participle rejeitado)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval forms regeita and reeseite and the spellings rejeitar and rejeytar of 1720.^[2] Bluteau heads the word Regeytar, while Feijó insists on rejeitar, from Latin rejicio, and not regeitar.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin reiectō (“to throw back; to reject; to vomit”).^[2][5] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word.^[6] Wiktionary starts from a Vulgar Latin verb formed on reiectus (“thrown back”), the past participle of reiciō (“to throw back, reject”), itself from re- and iaciō (“to throw”).^[1][7] The classical verb is rare, used by Lucretius of mountains throwing back the voice; in Medieval Latin it meant “to reject, refuse”.^[7][8]

It corresponds to Galician rexeitar.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century, from the forms regeita and reeseite.^[2] His first sense is the concrete one, “to throw away, cast off”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Pereira translates the verb by Latin rejicio, abdico and respuo “to cast off, renounce, spurn”.^[9] Morais has “to refuse what one is given” and “to reject an opinion or advice”, and in falconry “to vomit”, of hawks that bring up their food.^[10] He also has the noun rejeito, a throwing weapon, and Vieira the verb “to strike with a rejeito”, a sense Priberam marks as old.^[10][11][12] Modern senses add “to disapprove (a law, a bill)” and, in medicine, the rejection of a transplanted organ.^[2][13][1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, as regeita and reeseite.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira's dictionary glosses Rejeitar with Latin rejicio.^[9]
• 1720 – the spellings rejeitar and rejeytar.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó rejects the spelling regeitar.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais records the falconry sense “to vomit”.^[10]
• 1899 – Figueiredo's dictionary lists the Brazilian rejeitar “to hamstring”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To throw away, cast off, lay down: Os soldados rejeitaram os escudos.^[2][14]
2. (transitive) To refuse, not accept or admit: Rejeitou o convite do vizinho.^[2][12][1]
3. (transitive) To show repugnance for; to rebuff, despise.^[2][1]
4. (transitive) To repel, deny (an accusation).^[2]
5. (transitive) To throw, hurl; to cast up on the shore.^[2][12]
6. (transitive) Not to approve; to vote down: A assembleia rejeitou a proposta.^[2][1]
7. (transitive) To vomit, bring up.^[14][1]
8. (medicine) Of the body, to reject a transplanted organ.^[14][1]

Word family

• rejeitável
• rejeito

Related words

• rejeição
• Latin reiciō
• Galician rexeitar

Usage notes

Houaiss enters a separate Brazilian rejeitar “to cut the hamstring (rejeito, jarrete) of an ox”, first listed by Figueiredo in 1899, which he takes as a metathesis of jarretar, probably influenced by the verb “to reject”;^[14][6] Aurélio and Nascentes also derive it from jarretar.^[2][14][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rejeitar
3. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rejeitar
4. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rejeitar
5. ^ 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. rejeitar
6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rejeitar
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. rēiectō
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. rejectare
9. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rejeitar
10. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 313
11. ^ 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, 174
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. rejeitar
13. ^ 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. rejeitar
14. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. rejeitar