repertory

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin repertōrium (“inventory, catalogue”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which the OED dates to the 2nd or 3rd century AD and calls classical Latin.^[6] It is from repertus, the past participle of reperiō (“to find, discover, get, invent”),^[2][3][4][6] from re- and pariō (“to produce, bring forth”),^[2][6][7] with the suffix -ōrium.^[6][8] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary derive the Latin verb from Proto-Indo-European *perə- (“to produce, procure”),^[4][2] while Ayto traces it to a base *per- (“attempt”).^[9] In its modern sense it follows French répertoire,^[6][5][4] the source of its doublet repertoire.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An index, list or catalogue, especially one used to find things: 1542, in N. Udall's translation of Erasmus's Apophthegmes.^[6][8] Barnhart gives 1552,^[3] and Etymonline the 1550s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word's sense "list of things found" came first,^[9] and, starting in 1593 with G. Harvey's Pierces Supererogation, the word could also mean a repository or treasury, chiefly in a figurative way.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "a treasury; a magazine; a book in which any thing is to be found".^[10] Some early spellings with report- show association with report.^[6] The list sense later died out in general use,^[11] surviving in the name of a book of symptoms and treatments in homeopathy.^[6] The theatrical sense came from French:^[6][9][5] the stock of pieces a performer or company can give is recorded from 1797 in the OED,^[6] but only from 1845 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[3][4] From there it passed to a kind of theatre in which a resident company plays its stock in rotation: Etymonline has repertory theater from 1896,^[4] the OED this sense from 1903,^[6] and Barnhart repertory company from 1909, in Shaw's letters.^[3] The OED has the word by itself for such a theatre or company from 1933.^[6]

Timeline

• 1542 – an index, list or catalogue.^[6][8]
• 1593 – a repository, treasury or fund.^[6]
• 1797 – a performer's or company's stock of pieces, like repertoire.^[6] Barnhart and Etymonline date this to 1845.^[3][4]
• 1903 – the style of theatre that performs a stock of works in rotation.^[6] Etymonline has repertory theater from 1896.^[4]
• 1909 – repertory company, in Shaw's letters.^[3]
• 1933 – such a theatre or company, the word alone.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Repertoire: the whole stock of pieces, skills or things available to a performer or in a field: The cellist's repertory of sonatas is wide.^{[12][2][8][6]}
2. The performance of plays, operas or ballets from such a stock by one company, in regular rotation: She spent ten years in repertory.^[6][11]
3. A theatre or company that works in this way.^[2][6][12]
4. A place where a stock of things is kept; a repository.^{[12][2][8][6]}
5. An ordered list, index or catalogue; now especially a reference book of symptoms and treatments in homeopathy.^[8][6]

Word family

• repertorial
• rep

Related words

• repertoire
• repertorium
• parent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins