redargue

English

WOTD – 23 February 2022

Etymology

From Late Middle English redarguen, redargue (“to defeat (someone) in an argument; to rebuke, reprove”), from Middle French redarguer and Old French redargüer (“to disprove, refute; to accuse, blame; to rebuke, reprove”) (modern French rédarguer), and from their etymon Latin redarguere (“to disprove, refute”) (compare Late Latin redarguere (“to rebuke, reprove”)), the present active infinitive of redarguō (“to disprove, refute; to contradict”), from red- (a variant of re- (prefix meaning ‘again’)) + arguō (“to assert, declare; to clarify, make plain; to prove, show; to accuse, charge with; to censure, rebuke, reprove; to blame; to denounce as false”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ- (“argent, white; glittering”), in the sense of casting light on something to make it clear). Doublet of argue.

cognates

• Catalan redargüir
• Italian redarguire
• Old Occitan redarguir
• Portuguese redargüir
• Spanish redargüir

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈdɑːɡjuː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈdɑɹɡju/
• Hyphenation: red‧ar‧gue

Verb

redargue (third-person singular simple present redargues, present participle redarguing, simple past and past participle redargued)

1. (transitive)
   1. (obsolete except in Scots law)
      1. To disprove or refute (someone) in an argument.

         Synonym: counterargue

         • 1632 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “The Magnetick Lady: Or, Humors Reconcil’d. A Comedy […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London: […] Richard Meighen, published 1640, →OCLC, Act III, scene vi, page 39:

           Dia[ph Silkworm]. Sir, Ile redargue you, / By diſputation. / Com[passe]. O let's heare this! / I long to heare a man diſpute in his ſhirt / Of valour, and his ſvvord dravvne in his hand.

      2. To rebut or refute (an argument, a proposition, etc.).
         • 1635, George Hakewill, “Touching Grammar, Rhetorique, Logicke, the Mathematiques, Philosophy, Architecture, the Arts of Painting and Navigation”, in An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World. […], 3rd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] William Turner […], →OCLC, book III, section 4 (Of the Art of Navigation, […]), page 310:

           Nathaniel Carpenter [i.e., Nathanael Carpenter] late Fellow of Exceter Colledge in Oxford, in the ſecond booke and ſeventh chapter of his learned Geographicall concluſions, thus fully redargues that forgerie.

         • 1771, [Tobias Smollett], “To Mr. Henry Davis, Bookseller, in London”, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume I, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, pages v–vi:

           [T]he objections you mention, I humbly conceive, are ſuch as may be redargued, if not entirely removed— […]

   2. (obsolete)
      1. Often followed by for or of: to censure, to rebuke, to reprove (someone or something).
         • [1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 329:

           Wherefore, says he, the libel maun be redargued by the pannel proving her defences.

           In a passage spoken in Scots.]

      2. (rare) To argue (a case, proposition, etc.) against someone.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To present a disproof or refutation of an argument, a person, etc.

Derived terms

• redarguing (noun) (archaic)

Related terms

• argue
• redargution (obsolete)
• redargutive (archaic, rare)
• redargutory (obsolete)

Translations

to disprove or refute (someone) in an argument — see disprove,‎ refute

to rebut or refute (an argument, a proposition, etc.) — see rebut,‎ refute

Further reading

• “redargue, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• reargued, reguarde

Latin

Verb

redargue

1. second-person singular present active imperative of redarguō