reconcile

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reconcilen,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman reconciler and reconcilier, now réconcilier,^[4][2][3][5] and directly borrowed from Latin reconciliō (“to bring back into friendship or agreement; win back, restore”),^[4][3][5][6] formed from re- (“again, back”) and conciliō (“to bring together, make friendly”), the source of conciliate.^[3][5][7][8] The French verb is recorded from about 1165, used reflexively, and in Anglo-Norman from the late 12th century of restoring a person to friendly relations.^[4] In Christian Latin the verb also meant to reconcile with God (in the Vulgate), to reconcile with the Church and absolve (4th century) and to reconsecrate a desecrated church (8th century).^[4] reconciliar, reconciliar and riconciliare have the same source.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be restored to friendly relations with someone after an estrangement: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[4] Etymonline and Barnhart date the verb to the mid-14th century.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In the Wycliffite Bible the word was used, after Latin, of restoring sinners to God's favour through Christ.^[4][3] It was used reflexively, of reconciling oneself, from the late 14th century.^[3] Church senses followed: from before 1387, in Trevisa, to readmit a person to the Church and to reconsecrate a desecrated church.^[4] The sense "make consistent, harmonize" is dated before 1398 by Barnhart,^[5] to the 16th century by Hoad,^[9] and to the 1550s by Etymonline, which dates the mental sense, making facts consistent in one's mind, to the 1620s.^[3] About 1600 it came to mean bringing someone to accept something unwelcome, with to.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave "to make to like again" first, then "to make any thing consistent".^[10] In bookkeeping it means making an account agree with the balance.^[11][12]

Timeline

• before 1382 – to be restored to friendly relations.^[4]
• c. 1384 – to restore a person to friendship, or humanity to God.^[4]
• before 1387 – to readmit to the Church; to reconsecrate a church.^[4]
• before 1398 – to make consistent (Barnhart).^[5]
• 1415 – reflexive, to restore oneself to friendship or to God's favour.^[4]
• 1550s – to make discordant statements consistent (Etymonline).^[3]
• c. 1600 – to bring to accept something, with to.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To restore friendly relations between people, or with someone, after an estrangement: The brothers were reconciled after years apart.^[12][13][4]
2. To settle or resolve a quarrel or difference.^[12][13]
3. To make apparently conflicting things compatible or consistent: It is hard to reconcile her account with his.^[12][13][6]
4. reconcile oneself to: to come to accept something unwelcome.^[12][13][3]
5. To check one set of accounts or records against another so that they agree.^[12][11]
6. To readmit to the Church; to reconsecrate a desecrated church.^[13][4]

Word family

• reconcilement
• reconciler
• reconcilability
• reconcilable
• reconcilingly
• unreconciled
• reconciliation
• unreconciling

Related words

• conciliate
• council

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins