repudiate
pronunciation
How to pronounce repudiate in British English:
UK [rɪˈpjuːdieɪt]
How to pronounce repudiate in American English:
US [rɪˈpjuːdieɪt]
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- Verb:
- cast off or disown
- refuse to acknowledge, ratify, or recognize as valid
- refuse to recognize or pay
- reject as untrue, unfounded, or unjust
Word Origin
- repudiate
- repudiate: [16] Repudiate originally meant ‘divorce one’s wife’. It comes from Latin repudiāre ‘divorce, reject’, a derivative of the noun repudium ‘divorce’. It has been suggested that the ultimate source of this may be pēs ‘foot’ (source of English pedal), in which case its underlying meaning would be virtually ‘kick out’.
- repudiate (v.)
- 1540s, "to cast off by divorce," from Latin repudiatus, past participle of repudiare "to cast off, put away, divorce, reject, scorn, disdain," from repudium "divorce, rejection, a putting away, dissolution of marriage," from re- "back, away" (see re-) + pudium, which is probably related to pes/ped- "foot" [Barnhart]. If this is so, the original notion may be of kicking something away, but folk etymology commonly connects it with pudere "cause shame to." Of opinions, conduct, etc., "to refuse to acknowledge," attested from 1824. Earliest in English as an adjective meaning "divorced, rejected, condemned" (mid-15c.). Related: Repudiated; repudiating.
Example
- 1. Not finding anything like it , though , need not repudiate opera 's claims .
- 2. Republican candidates for the presidential nomination of 2016 may well feel obliged to repudiate any tax increase that is agreed on now .
- 3. Once he understood that compromise was necessary he had to repudiate the left , not apologise to it .
- 4. We repudiate the outrageous speech made by president bush yesterday , which gave a green light to a new israeli escalation of the conflict .
- 5. It is harder for customers to repudiate transactions when their fingerprints are all over them .