redirect

Etymology

It is formed from English re- + direct, "again, anew" and the verb direct.^[2][3][4][5] The noun is a conversion of the verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To forward a letter to a new or different address: 1618, in Anthony Munday's edition of Stow's Survey of London.^[2][4] Etymonline finds the word first in 1805, in redirected,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1835–45.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1650 the verb meant to change one's course so as to go another way, often in to redirect one's steps, and since 1778 to give a new direction to something, such as thoughts, attention or energy, or to send a person or thing elsewhere.^[2] In American law redirect was used from 1854 for a further examination of a witness after cross-examination, chiefly in redirect examination, and since 1880 as a noun for that examination.^[2] In computing a redirect is, from 1997, the sending of a request for one web address on to another, or the setting that does it.^[2]

Timeline

• 1618 – to send a letter on to a new address.^[2][4]
• 1650 – to change one's course.^[2]
• 1778 – to give a new direction to thoughts, energy and the like.^[2]
• 1854 – adjective, in redirect examination, in law.^[2]
• 1880 – noun, a redirect examination.^[2]
• 1997 – noun, in computing, the redirecting of a web address.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To change the direction or course of something, or send it to a different place: Traffic was redirected around the flooded bridge.^[7][4][2]
2. To turn thoughts, attention or effort to a new aim.^[2][4]
3. To send a letter on to a new address; to readdress.^[4][2]

Noun

1. (law) A further examination of a witness by the party that first called them, after cross-examination.^[2]
2. (computing) The automatic sending of a request for one web address to another, or the setting that does this.^[2]

Word family

• redirection

Related words

• direct
• direction
• redress

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins