replay

Etymology

It is formed from English re- (“again”) + play.^[2][3][4][5] The noun comes from the verb.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To perform something again, to repeat a performance: before 1635, in the poems of Thomas Randolph.^[3] Etymonline dates the verb "to play again" in any sense to the 1630s,^[2] and Merriam-Webster to about 1635.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In sport the verb meant playing a match, game or shot again because of an irregularity or a disputed result, from 1768;^[3] Etymonline cites it from curling by 1862.^[2] The noun followed in 1895, of a match played again, especially a cup tie that had ended in a draw.^[3][4] Recording technology gave the verb its sense of playing back sound or film, from 1922 in the OED (Etymonline has it by 1912),^[3][2] and the noun the sense of a playback from 1947.^[3] From there it was a short step to action replay and instant replay in television sport,^[5][6] and to a replay as any event that repeats an earlier one (1957).^[3]

Timeline

• a1635 – to perform again.^[3]
• 1768 – in sport, to play a match or shot again.^[3]
• 1895 – the noun, a replayed match.^[3][4]
• 1912 – to reproduce a recording (Etymonline); the OED's first example is from 1922.^[2][3]
• 1947 – the noun, a playback of a recording or film.^[3]
• 1957 – an event that repeats an earlier one.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To play a match or game again, typically after a draw or a disputed result.
2. To play a recording or film again; to play back.
3. To go over an event again in one's mind: She kept replaying the argument on the drive home.
4. To perform or play something again.

Noun

1. A match played again, especially one that first ended in a draw.
2. A showing again of part of a recording, especially of an incident in a sports broadcast, often in slow motion; an action replay.
3. Something that closely repeats an earlier event.

Word family

• instant replay
• action replay

Related words

• play
• rematch
• playback

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins