Etymologically
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rendezvous

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɹɒndɪˌvuː/, /ˈɹɒndeɪ̯ˌvuː/[1]
  • US: /ˈɹɑndəˌvu/, /ˈɹɑndeɪ̯ˌvu/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French rendez-vous (“designated meeting place”),[2][3][4][5] a noun made from the phrase rendez vous (“present yourselves, betake yourselves”),[2][3][6][7] from the wording of orders.[6] The phrase is formed from rendez, the second person plural imperative of French rendre (“to present, render”), the source of render, and vous (“you”),[3][6][5][8] from Latin vōs (“you (plural)”),[3][5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *wos- (“you (plural)”).[6] Hoad, Klein and Ayto take the imperative from the reflexive se rendre (“to betake oneself”).[9][8][10] The OED notes that the English word is recorded earlier than the French one in any of its senses, which implies earlier use in French; the French noun is recorded from about 1584.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of meeting or assembling, chiefly in place of rendezvous: 1556, in a letter, although the OED is not sure that this example shows the word.[2] Barnhart's first record is rendevous, a place appointed for the assembling of troops, in 1591,[3] and Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1556.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English as a military term: a place where a fleet assembled (1589) and a place where troops gathered (about 1591).[2][3][6] By 1594 it was used of any meeting place, especially a habitual one;[2][3] from about 1600 it also meant the meeting itself, held by appointment.[3][6] The romantic sense, a lovers' meeting or assignation, appears in 1697, a few years after the French rendez-vous took it on (1680).[2] The verb, to assemble at an appointed place, was formed from the noun in the 1640s.[2][6][3] Weekley notes that the word was common in the 17th century as randevoo,[11] and Barnhart that the French spelling with z was not settled in English until the 1700s.[3] In 1951 Arthur C. Clarke used it for the meeting of two spacecraft, and Heinlein the verb in the same year.[2]

Timeline

  • 1556 – the action of meeting or assembling (uncertain).[2]
  • 1589 – a place where ships assemble.[2]
  • 1591 – rendevous, a place where troops assemble.[3][2]
  • 1594 – a meeting place in general.[2][3]
  • 1628 – a meeting held at an appointed time and place.[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1600.[3]
  • 1645 – verb, of troops or ships, to assemble at an appointed place.[2][5]
  • 1648 – verb, to meet by arrangement.[2]
  • 1697 – a lovers' meeting, an assignation.[2]
  • 1951 – a meeting of spacecraft in space.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A meeting at an agreed time and place: They arranged a rendezvous at the station café.[12][5]
  2. The place where such a meeting is held, or a place where people habitually gather.[12][5][2]
  3. A place where troops, ships or aircraft are to assemble before or after an operation.[5][2]
  4. A secret meeting of lovers; a tryst or assignation.[2][4]
  5. The planned meeting of two spacecraft in space.[12][2]

Verb

  1. To meet, or bring people together, at an agreed time and place: The two patrols rendezvoused at the bridge.[12][5][2]
  2. Of a spacecraft, to meet another in space.[2][4]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  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 c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins