contrdicere

Contradicere, more correctly contradiceo? No—the standard Latin verb is contradico, contradicere, contradixī, contradictum, meaning to contradict, deny, oppose, or refute. It is formed from the prefix contra- “against” and dicere “to say,” and is common in classical Latin rhetoric, law, and philosophical argument. The present infinitive is contradicere; the principal parts shown above are used to form its conjugations.

The verb is a third-conjugation -io type verb. In the present active indicative it typically appears as contradico, contradicis, contradicit, contradicimus, contradicitis, contradicunt. The perfect active is contradixī, with corresponding perfect forms such as contradixistī and contradixit in different persons. The supine is contradictum, and the passive participle is contradictus.

Usage notes include its typical governing of a person in the dative when indicating who is being contradicted, as in Marcus ei contradixit, “Marcus contradicted him.” It may introduce a quotation or proposition that is being opposed, and scholars often discuss its rhetorical function in disputation and argumentation. Some Latin dictionaries list contradicere as a variant form or as the infinitive in stylistic or medieval texts, but contradico with contradicere as the standard paradigm is standard in classical authors.

In broader usage, contradicere appears in legal and philosophical contexts to express opposition or refutation of a claim, and it is frequently found in Cicero, Caesar, and later writers who discuss argumentative technique.