rehearsal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rehersaille,^[2][3][4] apparently at first borrowed from Anglo-Norman rehercel (“reading, account”), also spelled rehersaille, recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1377 or earlier;^[5][6] the Anglo-Norman noun is a derivative of rehercier (“to rehearse”).^[5] In later use the English word was formed afresh from rehearse and the suffix -al,^[5][7][2] which is how most dictionaries describe it.^[7][3][4] The verb comes from Middle English rehercen (“to repeat”), borrowed from Old French rehercier (“to go over again, repeat”), literally "to harrow again", formed from re- (“again”) and hercier (“to harrow”), from herse (“harrow”), the source of hearse.^[2][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The recounting or reciting of something, or the repeating of something heard, written or spoken: about 1395, in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale (in a manuscript of about 1405).^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, with the senses "restatement, repetition of the words of another; account, narration".^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant a repeating or recounting, and before 1439, in Lydgate, it came to mean an account or report.^[5] Johnson (1755) still gave "repetition; recital" first, quoting Hooker and Shakespeare.^[9] The theatrical sense, a practice performance of a play before it is given in public, appears in the accounts of the Revels at Court for 1579–80,^[5] and in the 1570s in Etymonline,^[2] following the verb rehearse, which had come to mean "to practise".^[2] The phrase in rehearsal, of something being prepared for performance, is recorded from 1698 in the OED^[5] and of a play from 1709 in Etymonline.^[2] Later the word was also used of a trial run of a ceremony or event,^[5] and the pre-wedding rehearsal dinner is attested by 1953.^[2] In law it meant a recital (1628, now historical),^[5] and in psychology, since 1902, the mental or spoken repetition of information in order to remember it.^[5][7]

Timeline

• c. 1395 – a recounting, recital or repetition, in Chaucer.^[5]
• before 1439 – an account or report, in Lydgate.^[5]
• 1579–80 – a practice performance of a play.^[5]
• 1628 – law: a recital.^[5]
• 1698 – in rehearsal, being rehearsed.^[5]
• 1902 – psychology: repetition in order to memorize.^[5]
• 1953 – rehearsal dinner.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A session in which a play, concert, speech or the like is practised before it is given in public: The choir held its last rehearsal on Friday.^[10][3][5]
2. in rehearsal: being prepared for public performance.^[10][5]
3. A trial run of a ceremony or other event.^[5]
4. The act of going through or telling something; a recital or repetition: a tedious rehearsal of old complaints.^[10][3][5]
5. In psychology, the mental or spoken repetition of information in order to remember it.^[5][7]

Word family

• prerehearsal

Related words

• rehearse
• hearse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins