Etymologically
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repel

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Pronunciation

  • /ɹɪˈpɛl/[1]

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

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