repeat

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rɪˈpiːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English repeten, borrowed from Old French repeter (“to say or do again, get back”),^[2][3] and directly from Latin repetere (“to do or say again; to attack again”),^[2][3] formed from re- “again” and petere “to go towards, seek, attack”,^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to rush, to fly”).^[2] It is related to compete, petition and feather.^[4][3][5] The spelling with ea appeared in the late 16th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To return, turn again: before 1382 in Barnhart, in the Wycliffe Bible.^[3] To say again what one has said: about 1375 in the OED, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

To say over something learned, to recite, is from 1559,^[6] and to say again what another has said from the 1590s.^[2][6] To do something again is from the 1550s (1560 in Barnhart).^[2][3] Repeat as an emphatic word on the radio is by 1938,^[2][6] and to take a school course again by 1945, in American English.^[2] In American elections a repeater voted more than once.^[7] The noun first meant repeated words or a refrain (about 1450),^[3] and then a passage played twice in music (1663);^[6] a repeated broadcast is from 1937.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 1382 – to return.^[3]
• c. 1375 – to say again.^[6]
• c. 1450 – noun, a refrain.^[3]
• 1550s – to do again.^[2]
• 1663 – a repeated passage in music.^[6]
• 1937 – a repeated broadcast.^[6][2]
• 1938 – as an emphatic word on the radio.^[2][6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To say or write something again.
2. To say what someone else has said, or tell others something you were told.
3. To do or experience something again.
4. To recite from memory.

Noun

1. An event or performance that happens again.
2. A television or radio programme that is broadcast again.
3. (music) A passage to be played again, or the sign for it.

Word family

• repeatability
• repeatable
• four-peat
• nonrepeat
• repeater
• three-peat
• repeatedly
• tandem repeat

Related words

• repetition
• repetitious
• repetitive
• repeated
• repeating
• compete
• petition
• appetite
• feather

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin