This week’s theme
Terms from law

This week’s words
arraign
pro se
depose
surrebuttal
subrogate

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(suhr-ri-BUHT-l)

MEANING:

noun: The response to a rebuttal.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin sur- (over, above) + rebuttal, from rebut (to refute), from Old French rebouter (to push back), from boute (to push). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhau- (to strike), which also gave us refute, beat, button, halibut, buttress, and prebuttal. Earliest documented use: 1889.

NOTES:

It all starts with the verb butt (to strike or push), which leads to rebut (to refute), which, in turn, leads to surrebut, and so on. The English language has enough prefixes that you can continue this back and forth forever. There’s also surrejoinder, a reply to a rejoinder. Also see hemidemisemiquaver and preantepenultimate.

USAGE:

“The ladies took the stand for the second time during the surrebuttal and again dumped on Lana shamelessly.”
Dominick Dunne; Guilty Feelings; Vanity Fair (New York); Nov 2007.

See more usage examples of surrebuttal in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: