How can I say "undo" in Latin?

Question

The question of how to express my username, Undo, in Latin recently came up in chat. As Ben Kovitz notes, Latin seems to lack the word 'defacio' or similar.

How can I say my name, the verb "undo", in Latin?

Well, the reason the the word défació doesn't exist in Latin is that, as in many verbs with prefixes, the vowel changes, and défació becomes défició. I'm not an expert on these vowel changes, so I can't usefully opine on them, but perhaps somebody else can.
That said, however, it's not clear to me that "undo" is a recognized meaning of défició. So I don't actually know the answer to your question. — Joel Derfner, Feb 28 '16 at 00:14

Cerberus · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-28T01:10:25.247

15

You could use retexo, literally "unweave, unravel", but also used to mean the below:

B. Trop., to break up, cancel, annul, reverse

It depends a little bit on the context, though, what the best translation would be. Other candidates are restituo, resolvo, abrogo, rescindo, induco, evacuo, exinanio, eludo, libero...

Adjectives with a similar meaning include infectus, irritus...

edited Feb 28 '16 at 01:10

answered Feb 28 '16 at 00:42

Cerberus

19,914
3
57
110

2

Oooh, I vote for retexo, since its literal meaning is "unweave." – Joel Derfner Feb 28 '16 at 01:09
1

Nice list. Another possibility is "abrogo." Beyond the dictionary usages, I've heard "Scholae abrogatae sunt" (e.g. on a snow day). – fpsvogel Feb 28 '16 at 01:10
@fvogel: Excellent, I've added it. – Cerberus Feb 28 '16 at 01:12

How can I say "undo" in Latin?

1 Answers1