redargue
/ɹəˈdɑɹɡju/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Often followed by for or of: to censure, to rebuke, to reprove (someone or something).
Obsolete; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "[T]he objections you mention, I humbly conceive, are ſuch as may be redargued, if not entirely removed— […]"
- "Wherefore, says he, the libel maun be redargued by the pannel proving her defences."
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
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂erǵ-, redarguen, redarguer, redargüer, redarguere
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹəˈdɑɹɡju/
- British English: /ɹɪˈdɑːɡjuː/