recuse

The story

1. Latin · derived fromrecūsāre
2. Old French · derived fromrecuser
3. Middle English · inherited fromrecusen
4. English todayrecuse

From Late Middle English recusen, from Old French recuser (modern French récuser (“to challenge; to impugn; (formal) to make an objection; (law) to recuse”), and from its etymon Latin recūsāre, the present active infinitive of recūsō (“to decline, refuse, reject; (law) to object to, protest”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’, denoting opposition or reversal) + causa (“cause, reason; (law) case, claim; etc.”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). Doublet of rouse and possibly ruse. Cognates * Catalan recusar * French récuser * Italian ricusare * Old Occitan recuzar * Portuguese recusar * Spanish recusar

Words from the same roots