refert

Refert is a Latin verb form, most commonly encountered as the third-person singular present indicative of referre, meaning to bring back, carry back, report, or relate. The basic root is re- (back) plus ferre (to bear or carry), giving a family of meanings centered on carrying back information or objects and on reporting what has happened.

In classical Latin, refert appears in several senses. The literal sense is “he/she/it brings back” or “he/she/it reports,” used with a direct object such as a thing being brought or related. The verb also has a frequent impersonal use, where the sense shifts to “it matters” or “it is of consequence.” In this construction, the subject is often a demonstrative like hoc (this) or id (that), as in hoc refert, meaning “this matters” or “this is of consequence.” A common idiom is quid refert? meaning “what does it matter?” or “what difference does it make?”

Beyond its basic senses, refert functions as part of broader Latin expressions for reporting, relating a story, or addressing the significance of an issue. In Latin texts, the form appears across genres, from narrative to rhetorical and philosophical prose, often conveying the act of presenting information or evaluating its importance to the discussion.

In modern usage, refert and its related forms are primarily of interest to students of Latin, philologists, and translators. They illustrate how Latin verbs can encode both concrete actions (carrying back, reporting) and abstract evaluation (importance, consequence) within a single form. References to referre and its other inflections provide a broader picture of the verb’s full paradigm.