remonstrate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin remōnstrō (“to point out, show, argue against”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} through its past participle remōnstrātus,^[5][6][7] with the suffix -ate.^[2][4][8] The Latin verb is recorded in the 12th century in a British source.^[2] It is formed from re- and mōnstrō (“to show”),^[2][3][8] itself from mōnstrum (“evil omen”), the source of monster.^[9][3] Barnhart thinks it probably a back-formation from remonstration, and Etymonline allows that as an alternative.^[9][10] The OED compares French remontrer, formerly remonstrer, and Italian rimostrare,^[2] and notes that remonstrative is slightly earlier in English.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make plain, demonstrate or show: 1601, in J. Deacon and J. Walker's Dialogicall Discourses.^[2][6] Barnhart finds it in 1599, in Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels,^[9] and Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From 1625 it could mean to point out a fault to another by way of reproof or complaint, and after 1629 also to lay a grievance before an authority, both now obsolete.^[2] The modern intransitive sense, to protest or object, sometimes by a formal remonstrance, is dated by the revised OED to 1615,^[2] much earlier than the 1695 of Barnhart and the 1690s of Etymonline.^[9][10] The transitive use, to say something in protest, is recorded from 1620,^[2] and the construction followed by with or against from 1655, in T. Fuller.^[2] Johnson (1755) defines the verb as making a strong representation, or showing reasons on any side in strong terms.^[11] The original sense "show" is obsolete by 1765,^[2] and Collins labels the transitive use archaic.^[12]

Timeline

• 1601 – to make plain, demonstrate, show (obsolete by 1765).^[2][6]
• 1615 – intransitive, to protest or object.^[2] Barnhart has 1695.^[9]
• 1620 – transitive, to say or plead forcefully in protest.^[2]
• 1625 – to point out a fault to someone by way of reproof (obsolete by 1761).^[2]
• 1629 – to present a grievance to an authority (obsolete by 1779).^[2]
• 1655 – intransitive, followed by with or against.^[2]
• 1723 – to request a person formally or forcefully to do something (rare).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To protest or object, giving reasons against an act or measure, usually followed by with or against: The residents remonstrated with the council over the closure.^[12][6][2]
2. To say something forcefully in protest or reproof: “You can't leave now,” she remonstrated.^[6][2]
3. (obsolete, 1601–1765) To make plain; to demonstrate or show.^[2][6][4]
4. (obsolete, 1625–1761) To point out a fault to someone by way of censure or complaint.^[2][6][12]

Word family

• remonstration
• remonstratively
• remonstrator
• remonstrative
• remonstratingly
• unremonstrated
• unremonstrating

Related words

• remonstrance
• remonstrant
• monster
• demonstrate
• muster

Usage notes

The stress has moved: the first edition of the OED (1906) gives only second-syllable stress,^[2] while the edition of 1989 marks that as older and first-syllable stress as dominant.^[2] D. Jones's pronouncing dictionary kept second-syllable stress as the main form up to 1963, and later editions still list it as an alternative.^[2]

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 r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins