Denis Dragunsky: "Old words and new meanings"
“For example, the word “refute”. In the old-fashioned way, I’m used to thinking that this word means something like “prove falsity”. Namely, prove! For example, Galileo refuted Aristotle’s statement that a heavy object falls faster than a light one. For this, Galileo I had to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa and throw heavy cannonballs and small stones from there. Friedrich Spee, citing his experience as an inquisitor, denied the existence of witches.