abnuo

• abnueō (pre-Classical)
• amnuō (post-classical)

From ab- (“from, away from”) +‎ *nuō (“nod”), literally “to reject by a nod”.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈab.nu.oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈab.nu.o]

abnuō (present infinitive abnuere, perfect active abnuī, supine abnuitum); third conjugation

1. (literally, rare, often in conjunction with adnuō) to say no, to nod in negation
   • c. 189 BCE, Plautus, Truculentus prol.4–6:

     Quid nunc? Datūrīn estis an nōn? Annuont.
     […]
     Quid sī dē vostrō quippiam ōrem? Abnuont.

     Well then? Are you going to give it or not? They nod in approval.
     […]
     What if I asked for something of yours? They nod in disapproval.

   • 8 CE – 12 CE, Ovid, Sorrows 5.10.41–42:

     Utque fit, in sē aliquid fingī, dīcentibus illīs
          abnuerim quotiēns adnuerimque, putant.

     Either way, they think I'm inventing something about them, whenever they speak
          and I nod in negation and affirmation.

2. to refuse, reject

   Synonyms: recūsō, negō, renuō

   Antonyms: adnuō, aiō

   • c. 40 BCE, Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum 47:

     […] rēgī pācem quam postulābat neque abnuere neque pollicērī […]

     […] he neither refused nor promised the king the peace he was asking for […]

   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 10.10.8:

     Dē societāte haud abnuunt barbarī: dē mercēde agitur.

     The barbarians refuse not an alliance: it's all about remuneration.

   • 94 CE – 96 CE, Statius, Achilleid 1.917:

     Nec tamen abnuerit generō sē iungere tālī.

     Nor will he refuse to join with such a son in law.

   • c. 56 CE – 117 CE, Tacitus, Annals 13.14:

     Nōn abnuere se, quīn cūncta īnfēlīcīs domūs mala patefīerent, suae in prīmīs nūptiae, suum venēficium.

     She didn't reject that all the evils of the unhappy house be made known, her marriage first of all, and her poisoning.

   • 248 CE – 258 CE, Cyprian, Letters 65.3 in Corpus Vindobonense (volume III, part 2), Franz Pauly, Vienna (1871), page 724, lines 3–4:

     Nec mīrum sī cōnsilia nostra aut Dominī praecepta nunc abnuunt quī Dominum negāvērunt.

     No wonder that those who denied the Lord now reject our decisions or the Lord's teachings.

   1. (poetic or post-classical, chiefly of inanimate subjects) to not admit of
   2. (military, very rare) to decline service
      • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 27.49.3:

        Ille fessōs abnuentēsque taediō et labōre nunc precandō, nunc castigandō accendit.

        It was he who, now by entreaties, now by chastising, stimulated the soldiers, tired and declining service due to weariness and difficulty.

3. to deny
   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 3.640–641:

     At quod scinditur et partīs discēdit in ūllās,
     scīlicet aeternam sibi nātūram abnuit esse.

     But if something breaks and separates into any parts,
     it surely denies having an eternal nature.

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 10.70.137:

     Quī crēdat ista, et Melampodī profectō augurī aurēs lambendō dedisse intellēctum avium sermōnis dracōnes nōn abnuat.

     Anyone who would believe these would also surely not deny that serpents gave Melampus the augur the understanding of bird language by means of licking his ears.

   • c. 125 CE – 180 CE, Apuleius, Metamorphoses 2.27:

     Ēmeditātīs ad haec illa flētibus quamque sānctissimē poterat adiūrāns cūncta nūmina, tantum scelus abnuēbat.

     With cries devised just for this, swearing by all the gods as solemnly as she could, she denied having committed such a crime.

   • c. 310 CE, Lactantius, Divinarum Institutionum Epitome 31 (36) in Corpus Vindobonense (volume IXX), Samuel Brandt, Vienna (1890), page 706, lines 10–12:

     Epicūrī doctrīna haec est inprīmīs, nullam esse prōvidentiam, et īdem deōs esse nōn abnuit: utrumque contrā ratiōnem.

     Chiefly, the doctrine of Epicurus is that there is no Providence, and he also denies not the existence of gods: both go against reason.

The figurative meaning has almost completely overtaken the literal one.

The word is a favourite of Livy and Tacitus. Older authors prefer the negative formula “haud abnuō”, while authors after the time of Tacitus use “nōn abnuō”.

• abnuitiō
• abnūtīvus
• abnutō

• → Portuguese: abnuir
• → Spanish: abnuir

• “abnuo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “abnuo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• abnuo in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2025), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• abnuo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “abnuō” in volume 1, column 112, line 52 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present