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repudiate: msg#00025

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: repudiate

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The Word of the Day for August 26 is:

repudiate \rih-PYOO-dee-ayt\ verb
1 : to refuse to have anything to do with : disown
*2 : to reject as untrue or unjust

Example sentence:
The clerk repudiated the charges that he had stolen money
from the cash register.

Did you know?
In Latin, the noun "repudium" refers to the rejection of a
spouse or prospective spouse, and the related verb "repudiare"
means "to divorce" or "to reject." In the 16th century, English
writers used the derivative "repudiate" to mean "to divorce,"
when in reference to a wife, or "to disown," when in reference
to a member of one's family, or just generally "to reject or
cast off." By the 19th century the word had acquired a separate
sense meaning "to reject as untrue," which was often used in
reference to opinions, claims and accusations. Nowadays this
second sense is the more common of the two.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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