repair

Repair, to go to a place, and repair, to mend, are different words, from Late Latin repatriāre and Latin reparāre.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /rɪˈpeə/, /rəˈpeə/, US /rɪˈper/^[4]

repair¹ go

Etymology

To go is inherited from Middle English repairen, borrowed from Old French repairer, repairier (“to return, come back, frequent”),^[5][1][6] from Late Latin repatriāre (“to return to one's own country”).^[5][1][2] It is a doublet of repatriate.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To go to a place, make one's way: about 1300 in Etymonline, before 1300 in Sir Tristrem according to Barnhart.^[5][1]

Semantic evolution

The noun, resort or habitual going to a place, is from about 1330, and the place one repairs to, a haunt or dwelling, from 1375;^[7][2] both are now archaic.^[6] In Scots a repair was a gathering of people.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to go to a place.^[5][1]
• c. 1330 – noun, resort.^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. (formal) To go to a place: they repaired to the bar.

repair² mend

Etymology

To mend is inherited from Middle English reparen, later repairen, borrowed from Old French reparer (“to repair, mend”) and directly from Latin reparāre (“to restore, renew”),^[5][1][3] from re- (“again”) and parāre (“to make ready”).^[5][1] It is related to prepare and reparation.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To restore, mend, put back in good condition: before 1350 in Barnhart, the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English it could also mean to adorn.^[6] To make amends for an injury is by the 1560s.^[5] The noun, maintenance or restoration, is from about 1400, and the act of restoring something after decay from the 1590s.^[5] The state or condition of something, as in the phrase good repair, is from about 1600.^[5] Repairable is from 1489 and repairman from 1871.^[1]

Timeline

• a. 1350 – to restore.^[1]
• c. 1400 – noun, maintenance.^[5]
• 1560s – to make amends.^[5]
• c. 1600 – condition.^[5]
• 1871 – repairman.^[1]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To fix something damaged or broken; to mend.
2. To put right a wrong or relationship.

Noun

1. The act or work of repairing.
2. Condition: in good repair.

Related words

• reparation
• reparative
• repatriate
• prepare
• repairman

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)