redemption

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English redempcioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman redempcioun and redemption,^[4][5] and also directly from Latin redēmptiō (“a buying back, ransoming, release”),^[4][6][7] a noun of action formed on redēmptus, the past participle of redimō (“to buy back, redeem”),^[6][3][8] from red- (“back”) and emō (“to take, buy”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- (“to take”).^[6] The -d- comes from the Old Latin use of red- as the form of re- before a vowel.^[6] In Late Latin the word was used of redemption from sin.^[2] In French it is recorded in this religious sense from the end of the 10th century, and in Anglo-Norman for the release of a prisoner against payment from the first third of the 12th century.^[4][5] Ransom comes from the same Latin word by way of Old French, so the two are doublets.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The freeing of a prisoner, captive or slave by payment, and occasionally the payment itself: a1325, in the Statutes of the Realm.^[4] Etymonline instead gives "deliverance from sin", from the mid-14th century, as the first sense.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense, deliverance from sin and damnation through the atonement of Christ, appears in the Wycliffite Bible (c1384) and became the word's central meaning;^[4][8] Johnson (1755) defined it as ransom or release and as the purchase of God's favour by the death of Christ.^[9] From the idea of buying back came commercial uses: buying membership of a guild (1418), recovering pawned or mortgaged property (1469), paying off a debt (a1513), and in finance the repayment of stocks and bonds (1709).^[4][10] An originally American use (1903) is exchanging coupons or trading stamps for goods or cash.^[4] The general sense of saving or restoring a person or thing (?a1439) gave the phrase beyond redemption (1488) and, from 1694, a redeeming feature.^[4]

Timeline

• a1325 – the freeing of a captive by payment.^[4]
• c1384 – in theology, deliverance from sin, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[4]
• mid-14th century – redemcioun, deliverance from sin.^[6]
• a1400 – atonement for a crime or offence.^[4]
• 1418 – purchase of membership of a guild or company.^[4]
• ?a1439 – saving or restoring a person or thing, in Lydgate.^[4]
• c1450 – in Judaism, the redeeming of a firstborn son from a priest.^[4]
• 1469 – buying back mortgaged or pawned property.^[4][10]
• 1488 – beyond redemption, past saving.^[4]
• 1694 – a redeeming feature, in Dryden.^[4]
• 1709 – in finance, repayment of a stock or bond.^[4]
• 1903 – exchanging coupons or stamps for goods or money, first in the United States.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed; being saved from error, evil or failure.
2. (Christianity) Deliverance from sin through the death of Christ; salvation.
3. Atonement for guilt or wrongdoing.
4. The freeing of a captive by payment; ransom.
5. The paying off of a debt, or the repayment of a bond or other security.
6. The exchange of a coupon, voucher or token for goods or money.
7. beyond (or past) redemption: too bad to be saved or improved.

Word family

• redemptional
• redemptionless
• nonredemption
• redemptioner
• equity of redemption

Related words

• redeem
• ransom
• redemptive
• redeemer

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)