replenish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English replenishen, also replenissen and repleinshen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French repleniss-, the extended stem of replenir (“to fill up”),^{[5][6][7][8][2]} Anglo-Norman repleinir.^[9][2] The OED records the French verb at the end of the 11th century in a spiritual context, in the early 12th century of material things, and in the 14th century with the sense to refill;^[9] the Anglo-Norman verb is attested from 1121–25.^[10] It is formed from re- and plenir (“to fill”), from plein (“full”), Latin plēnus (“full”),^{[11][12][3][13]} which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“to fill”).^[5] Etymonline takes the prefix here as intensive, "to fill completely",^[5] and the Oxford Dictionary of English as both "again" and intensive.^[8] For the ending, Barnhart, Hoad and the OED refer to the suffix -ish.^[6][7][9] Johnson connected it with Latin repleō.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fill or supply: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[6][15] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century, with the sense to provide with food or drink, or with riches or beauty.^[5] The OED's first quotation, to stock a place abundantly with people or animals, is from Chaucer's Parson's Tale (written about 1390, in a manuscript of about 1405).^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to provide, people or fill: to provide someone with food and drink, to populate the earth, to fill an empty space.^[2][9] Chaucer used it three times.^[16] The King James Bible's "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Genesis 1:28) has this older sense of filling with people,^[3][14] and Johnson (1755) still gave "to stock; to fill" as its first meaning.^[14] The modern sense, to fill up again or restore a supply to its former level, appears only in 1612, in Drayton's Poly-Olbion;^[9][6] Hoad likewise dates "fill up again" to the 17th century and calls the older "fill or stock abundantly" obsolete or archaic.^[7] The intransitive use, to become full again, is from 1579, and the sense of filling a vacant office from 1632.^[9] Several senses, such as filling a person with a feeling or occupying a place as settlers, died out between the 16th and 19th centuries.^[9] In Scots the verb could also mean to clean or refurbish.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – to fill or supply, in Chaucer's Boece.^[6]
• c. 1390 – to stock a place abundantly with people or animals.^[9]
• before 1450 – to fill with food or drink; to satisfy.^[9]
• 1526 – to endow a person fully with something (obsolete by 1791).^[9]
• 1579 – intransitive, to become full again.^[9]
• 1612 – to fill up again; to restore a stock to its former level.^[9][6]
• 1632 – to fill a vacant office.^[9]
• 1654 – noun, a refill or new supply (obsolete by 1881).^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill something up again, or restore a stock or supply to its former level by adding what has been used: We replenished the water tanks before the crossing.^[18][9][7]
2. To put fresh fuel on a fire.^[18]
3. To fill a vacant office or position.^[9]
4. (intransitive) To become full again; to recover a former state.^[9]
5. (archaic) To fill or stock a place abundantly with people or animals; to people.^[3][9][7]

Word family

• replenisher
• replenishment
• replenishable
• unreplenished

Related words

• plenish
• replete
• plenty
• plenary
• plenum
• full

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins