reiterate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reiteraten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin reiterātus, the past participle of reiterō (“to repeat”),^{[3][5][6][7][2]} recorded from the 6th century.^[7] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“again”) and iterō (“to repeat, do a second time”),^[3][5][8][9] from iterum (“again”).^[3][9][10] It replaced reiteren (1392), which came from Old French reiterer.^[11][2] Related forms are réitérer (1314), reiterare (before 1319), reiterar (1462) and reiterar (late 15th century).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To repeat a process or treatment, to do it again: probably before 1425, in the translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, where it glosses Latin reiterare as "ofte to reiterate or do agayn".^[7][2] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century, first in medicine and alchemy,^[3] while Collins, Hoad and Dictionary.com date the word only to the 16th century.^[9][12][13]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb belonged to surgery and alchemy: to repeat a treatment, and in alchemy to bring something back.^[2][3] A sense "to give a medicine or treatment again" lasted from 1580 to 1716.^[7] The sense now usual, to say something again, appeared in 1560,^[7] and Etymonline dates it to the mid-16th century.^[3] Rare uses of the 17th century were to cause a disease to return (1652), to tell again (about 1650) and, in Herrick (1648), to walk over a place again.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as to repeat again and again, with examples from Shakespeare and Milton.^[14] From 1733 it was also used intransitively, of a thing that occurs again.^[7] The participial adjective reiterate, "repeated", is as old as the verb^[7][2] and is now archaic.^[15]

Timeline

• 1392 – reiteren, to repeat a course of treatment.^[2][11]
• before 1425 – reiteraten, to repeat a process; adjective, repeated.^[7][2]
• 1560 – to repeat a statement or request.^[7]
• 1580 – to give a medicine again (obsolete by 1716).^[7]
• 1648 – to walk over a place again (rare, obsolete).^[7]
• 1733 – intransitive, to occur again.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To say something again or several times, often for emphasis or clarity: The coach reiterated that practice starts at six.^[9][4][7]
2. To do something again or repeatedly.^[9][4][7]
3. (intransitive) To happen again; to recur.^[7]
4. (obsolete, 1580–1716) To give a medicine or treatment again.^[7][15]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Repeated, reiterated.^[4][7][15]

Word family

• reiteration
• reiteratively
• reiterative
• reiterable

Related words

• iterate
• iteration

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press