different between oppugn vs contravene

English

Etymology

From Middle French oppugner Latin oppugno (“fight against, to attack, assail, assault, storm, besiege, war with”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??pju?n/
• Rhymes: -u?n

Verb

oppugn (third-person singular simple present oppugns, present participle oppugning, simple past and past participle oppugned)

1. (transitive, rare) To contradict or controvert; to oppose; to challenge or question the truth or validity of a given statement.
   • 1761 Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, page 180, London: R. and J. Dodsley.

     It is for the same reason, that is, because 'tis all comprehended in Slawkenbergius, that I say nothing likewise of Scroderus (Andrea) who all the world knows, set himself to oppugn Prignitz with great violence, ---- proving it in his own way, first logically, and then by a series of stubborn facts

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

• impugn
• pugnacious
• repugnant

Anagrams

• pop gun, popgun

English

Etymology

From Middle French contravenir (French contrevenir), from Latin contraveni?.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?n.t???vi?n/

Verb

contravene (third-person singular simple present contravenes, present participle contravening, simple past and past participle contravened)

1. (transitive) To act contrary to an order; to fail to conform to a regulation or obligation.

   Synonyms: breach, break, infringe, violate

   • 1648, Samuel Rutherford, A Survey of the Spirituall Antichrist, London: Andrew Crooke, Chapter 69, p. 141,^[1]

     […] nothing is a commandement, or a commanded dutie but that which if we contravene, it maketh us guilty of sin before God,

   • 1713, Daniel Defoe, Considerations upon the eighth and ninth articles of the treaty of commerce and navigation, London: J. Baker, p. 8,^[2]

     […] this Article directly contravenes the Treaty with Portugal […]

   • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, London: William Blackwood, Volume 3, Book 5, Chapter 45, p. 44,^[3]

     […] the other medical visitors having a consultative influence, but no power to contravene Lydgate’s ultimate decisions;

   • 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chapter 2, p. 19,^[4]

     It was a construction in wood, with manifold “features” suggestive of the villa, the bungalow, the chateau, the palace; it united all tastes and contravened all conventions.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To deny the truth of something.

   Synonyms: contradict, controvert, dispute, gainsay

   • 1653, William Birchley, The Christian Moderator, Part 3, London: Richard Lowndes, p. 7,^[6]

     […] to make the contravening of Doctrines, to be capitall, before they be fully proved, is prejudiciall to that liberty, without which none can justify himself before God or Man:

   • 1794, Gilbert Wakefield, An Examination of The Age of Reason, London, p. 38,^[7]

     To contravene positions, that have been discussed again and again by writers of the first genius and erudition, and to disparage the genuineness of the bible histories wholly and indiscriminately, without some precision of investigation, some specific allegations, founded on the report of authentic documents, is intolerable arrogance […]

   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 6, p. 168,^[8]

     That the detention of the troops was a wise measure, is not to be contravened;

   • 1915, William Henry Cobb, The Meaning of Christian Unity, New York: Crowell, Chapter 5, p. 135,^[9]

     This is a large octavo of more than five hundred pages, a cool, scientific collection of facts that cannot be contravened, leading up to the inescapable conclusion […]

Related terms

• contravener
• contravention

Translations

Anagrams

• Covenanter, covenanter