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redargue

verb /ɹɪˈdɑːɡjuː/

  1. To disprove or refute (someone) in an argument.

    transitive

    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.).

    transitive

    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.

  3. Often followed by for or of: to censure, to rebuke, to reprove (someone or something).

    obsolete, transitive

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

  4. To argue (a case, proposition, etc.) against someone.

    obsolete, rare, transitive

Where it comes from

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.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry redargue (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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