repeal

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɹəˈpiːl/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English repelen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman repeler, an alteration of rapeler (“to call back, revoke”),^[2][3][4] from re- (“back”) and apeler (“to call”) (see appeal).^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To revoke or annul: about 1385, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline;^[2][3] the OED dates it to the 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Trench notes that to repeal was to recall, and was once used far more widely, of people recalled from banishment (Shakespeare) and of doubts dispelled (Milton);^[7] it is now used almost only of laws.^[7][8] The noun first meant a recall, as from exile, in 1483 (Caxton),^[2][6][3] and the act of repealing a law from about 1500.^[6][3] In Irish history, Repeal was the proposed dissolution of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1831.^[6][9]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – to revoke.^[2]
• 1483 – a recall from exile.^[6][2]
• c. 1500 – the repeal of a law.^[3][6]
• 1831 – Repeal of the Union.^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To revoke or annul a law or decision officially.
2. (obsolete) To call back, especially from exile.

Noun

1. The act of repealing.

Word family

• repealable
• repealer
• repealability
• unrepealed

Related words

• appeal
• peal
• repel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins