repel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English repellen, also rapelen,^[2] borrowed from Latin repellō (“to drive back, repulse, reject”),^{[3][2][4][5][6]} and partly borrowed from Old French repeller.^[2][4][7][8] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and pellō (“to drive, strike”),^{[4][9][10][11]} from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[4][7] The OED compares Anglo-Norman repeler (“to deter”) and the Romance verbs Catalan repelir, Spanish repeler, Portuguese repelir and Italian repellere,^[3] and Klein links the verb with pulse, appeal and repeal.^[9] The noun and adjective repulse come from the Latin past participle.^[10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, to drive a morbid humour back from a swollen or diseased part: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[3] Etymonline gives the first sense as "to drive away, remove, quench", now obsolete.^[4] Barnhart's first record is about 1421, in Lydgate's Siege of Thebes.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The early senses were varied: to quench thirst or hunger (about 1425), to reject a person (before 1439, in Lydgate) and to exclude someone from an office (1480).^[3] The military sense, to drive back an attacker, is recorded from about 1475,^[3] and Etymonline dates the sense "to resist effectively" to the mid 15th century.^[4] From 1593, in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, it was used of driving away a suitor.^[3] The sense "to cause disgust or aversion in" is the latest, from 1817.^[4] Weekley notes that repulse has largely taken over the military sense.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1425 – in medicine, to drive back a humour (obsolete by 1890).^[3]
• c. 1425 – to quench thirst or hunger (now rare).^[3]
• c. 1443 – to reject a statement or plea.^[3]
• before 1450 – to ward off a harmful influence.^[3]
• c. 1475 – to drive back an attacker or invader.^[3]
• 1593 – to drive away a suitor.^[3]
• 1817 – to cause aversion or disgust in.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drive or force back, especially an attacker: The garrison repelled two assaults before dawn.^[13][6][3]
2. To cause a feeling of disgust or aversion in: The smell of the drains repelled the buyers.^[13][4]
3. To keep away or resist: a spray that repels mosquitoes.^[13]
4. To fail to mix with or absorb; to push away by a natural force: Oil and water repel each other.^[13]
5. To reject or refuse to accept, as a suggestion or a person's advances.^[13][3]
6. To hold back or repress a feeling or inclination.^[6][3]

Word family

• repeller
• repellence
• repellingly
• repellingness
• unrepelled

Related words

• repellency
• repellent
• repulse
• repulsion
• repulsive
• pulse
• propel
• expel
• compel
• repeal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins