Dictionary

redargue en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ɹəˈdɑɹɡju/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ɹɪˈdɑːɡjuː/ (Received-Pronunciation)

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

Meanings

1. (qualifier:obsolete except in Scots law, transitive) To disprove or refute (someone) in an argument.
   • 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. 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:
2. (qualifier:obsolete except in Scots law, transitive) To rebut or refute (an argument, a proposition, etc.).
   • [T]he objections you mention, I humbly conceive, are ſuch as may be redargued, if not entirely removed— […] 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:
   • 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. 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:
3. (obsolete, transitive) Often followed by for or of: to censure, to rebuke, to reprove (someone or something).
   • Wherefore, says he, the libel maun be redargued by the pannel proving her defences. [1818 July 25, Jedediah 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:
4. (obsolete, rare, transitive) To argue (a case, proposition, etc.) against someone.
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To present a disproof or refutation of an argument, a person, etc.

Forms

Deriveds

redarguing

Relateds

redargution · redargutory · redargutive · argue

Synonyms

counterargue