Etymologically
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rejoin

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Pronunciation

  • /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɔɪn/, /ɹiːˈd͡ʒɔɪn/[1]

rejoin1 to answer, reply

Etymology

The verb meaning to answer is inherited from Middle English rejoinen,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman rejoin-, the stem of rejoindre (“to reply to a charge or pleading”), recorded in this legal use before 1339.[4] This was a special use of the Anglo-Norman and Middle French verb meaning "to join again".[4][5] Etymonline names the source as Old French, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster as Middle French.[6][7][3] The French verb is formed from re- (“back, again”) and joindre (“to join, connect, unite”),[6][7][8] from Latin iungō (“to join together, unite, yoke”), from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *yeug- (“to join”).[6] The OED compares Medieval Latin rejungō (“to reply to a charge or pleading”), used in this sense in British sources in about 1420 and 1492.[4] The noun rejoinder comes from the Anglo-Norman infinitive used as a noun.[7][9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, to reply a second time to a plaintiff's charge or complaint: 1447, in the letters of John Shillingford, "hit is answered, repplyed, and rejoyned".[2][4][7] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.[6]

Semantic evolution

In pleading, the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's reply (the replication) was his rejoinder, and to make it was to rejoin.[3][7][9] From the mid-16th century the verb was used outside the courts, first for answering a reply and then for replying in general;[4][12][11] Barnhart records the now obsolete sense "reply" from 1556 and the general sense "say in answer" from 1637.[7] The OED finds the transitive use with the words spoken as object from 1581, in William Fulke's Rejoinder to Bristow's Reply.[4] The legal sense is now rare and historical, and the intransitive "to reply" is rare too, while the transitive use, usually with direct speech, survives.[4]

Timeline

  • 1447 – law, to answer a plaintiff's reply.[4][2][7]
  • 1548 – to reply, originally to answer a reply.[4] Barnhart dates the sense "reply" to 1556.[7]
  • 1581 – transitive, to say in answer.[4] Barnhart's first record of this general use is from 1637.[7]
  • 1601 – to answer an assertion (obsolete, rare).[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To say in reply, especially to a remark or an answer: "Then you can pay for it," her brother rejoined.[3][4][12]
  2. (law) To answer a charge or pleading, especially the plaintiff's replication.[3][4][12]
  3. (rare) To make a reply or give a response.[4][12]

rejoin2 to join again

Etymology

The verb meaning to join again is formed from English re- + join,[6][7][13] and partly borrowed from Middle French rejoin- (“to reunite, bring together again”), the stem of rejoindre.[4][11][12] The OED treats it as partly French and partly, especially in later use, an English formation; the French verb is recorded in Old French from the late 11th century for "to reunite", and about 1180 for "to bring together again".[4] Barnhart takes it as an English formation perhaps influenced by the French stem.[7] The French verb is formed from re- and joindre (“to join”).[4][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To join something again or reunite it: 1479, in Earl Rivers's translation of the Cordyal, printed by Caxton.[4] Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to 1541 and the 1540s, of things coming together again, in Robert Copland's translation of Guy de Chauliac.[7][6][4] Dictionary.com dates it to 1535–45.[13]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "to join again" and "to meet one again", quoting Thomas Browne on galleys that were taken to pieces, carried on camels and "rejoined together at Sues".[15] The sense of joining a person or company again, recorded from 1611 in Florio, is now the commonest, as in rejoining a regiment or a party.[4][6][3] The OED also has rare uses for adding to something (1582) and for reannexing a region (1741–1860).[4]

Timeline

  • 1479 – transitive, to join something again, to reunite.[4] Etymonline dates the transitive sense to the 1560s.[6]
  • 1541 – intransitive, of things, to come together again.[4][7][6]
  • 1582 – to join, add to (obsolete, rare).[4]
  • 1611 – to join a person or company again.[4][6]
  • 1741 – to reannex a region (obsolete by 1860).[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To join a person, group or organization again; to return to: After the injury she rejoined the squad in March.[3][16][4]
  2. To put or join together again; to reunite: The surgeon rejoined the two ends of the tendon.[3][16][4]
  3. Of things, to come together again: The trail rejoins the river a mile downstream.[3][4][12]
  • rejoinder
  • join
  • joinder

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins