Refuse means rejecting or not approving something.
Refuse is a verb that comes from the Latin word refusare . The term refers to a refusal to accept, abide by or admit something .
For example: “I am going to refuse to testify until my lawyer arrives” , “Bruno made a proposal to Gustavo that was impossible for him to refuse” , “The government is looking for excuses to be able to refuse new affiliations” .
verb refuse
As mentioned above, the verb to refuse finds its origin in a Latin verb that is written refusare and is a frequentative of refundere , which can be translated as "to pour a liquid substance back into its corresponding container." The participle of refundere , meanwhile, is refusus .
Frequent verbs, on the other hand, are those that refer to an action that is executed by reiterating another simpler one. In this way, it is possible to form a frequentative verb from the passive participle, since it indicates something that the action has inherited, as can be seen from the following examples: cedere (stop, suspend, finish), which has its participle cessus and his frequent cessare ; and vertere (turn, turn), which has its participle versus and its frequentative versare . The orthographic similarity between the participle and the frequentative can be noted.
Returning to the verb from which refuse arose, we see that it is made up of the following components: the prefix re- , which indicates a backward movement , and can be seen in terms such as repugnant and reject ; and the verb fundere , which can be translated as consume, melt, melt or wear out and which gave rise, in turn, to confusion, fuselage and melt , for example. This last verb ( fundere ) is also usually associated with the root gheu- , of Indo-European origin, which indicates actions such as pouring and spilling .
Refusing implies a lack of compliance or acceptance.
Action characteristics
What a person does by refusing something is rejecting it . Suppose a man is offered the management position of a multinational company. This position would give him access to a very important salary, but it would force him to travel a lot and be subject to great pressure on a permanent basis. After analyzing the benefits and disadvantages of the position, the man makes the decision to refuse management .
A soccer player, for his part, can refuse a call-up to his country's national team. After the call from the team's technical director, the footballer announces that he prefers not to join the team since he must solve certain family problems that prevent him from concentrating on the sport.
A historical example of refusal took place in 1964 , when the French writer Jean Paul Sartre decided to refuse the Nobel Prize for Literature . The intellectual first sent a letter to the Nobel Committee to inform that he did not want to be considered for the award. Then, after his election, he wrote a text through which he rejected the distinction. Although Sartre was responsible for refusing the Nobel Prize , the Swedish Academy did not change its decision and the writer still appears on the official list of winners.
Refuse and reuse
It is important not to confuse this term with the verb reuse , which has an absolutely different meaning: it indicates "to use something again." Let's look at some example sentences to highlight their differences: "Reusing plastic bags to bring groceries from the supermarket is an environmentally friendly practice" ; «It is not recommended to reuse these filters, since it is not possible to clean them properly» ; "Refilling and reusing ink cartridges can damage a printer."
It is worth mentioning that the verb refuse is not used very often in everyday speech, but is found more frequently in the written language . Instead, it is more common to find ourselves with reject or the expression refuse to , among other options that also depend on the context and the region.