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replete

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Etymology and origin of the English word replete

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1384 Wycliffite Bible More words from the 14th century
Borrowed from
Old French replet via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin pleō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pleō
Latin repleō
Latin replētus
English replete
From the same root
Latin compleō ← pleō
Latin dēpleō ← pleō
Latin expleō ← pleō
Latin impleō ← pleō
Latin oppleō ← pleō
Latin suppleō ← pleō

Pronunciation

  • /ɹɪˈpliːt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English repleet,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French replet (“filled up, gorged with food”)[5][6][3] and directly borrowed from Latin replētus (“full, fully endowed”),[5][6][2] the past participle of repleō (“to fill again, fill up”),[5][6][7] from re- and pleō (“to fill”),[5][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“to fill”).[6][7] The French adjective is recorded from 1314.[5] Barnhart treats the Latin prefix as an intensive,[3] and Etymonline suggests that "fill repeatedly" came to mean "fill completely".[6] The verb replete, Middle English repleten, comes from the Latin participle alone,[5][2][8] and the noun for the ant was made from the adjective within English.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Abundantly supplied with something: about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible,[5][3] spelled repleet.[3] Barnhart has the spelling replete from before 1398.[3]

Semantic evolution

Most of the word's senses appeared within about a generation: "well supplied" first, then the medical sense "full of blood, stout" from before 1398 (obsolete by 1739),[5] "sated with food" from before 1400,[5] and "physically full" from about 1405, in Chaucer.[5] It could also be used of a quality that filled someone, from about 1406.[5] Later writers kept the figurative use, as in Shakespeare's "replete with mocks", quoted by Johnson (1755), who defined the word as "filled to exuberance".[9] Chaucer's construction was replete of, now replaced by replete with.[10][5] A newer use, "furnished with what is expected", appears in 1974.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1384 – abundantly supplied, as repleet.[5][3]
  • before 1398 – medical, plethoric, full of blood, stout (obsolete by 1739).[5]
  • before 1400 – filled with food or drink, sated.[5]
  • c. 1405 – physically filled, with no empty space, in Chaucer.[5]
  • c. 1406 – fully imbued with a quality, in Hoccleve.[5]
  • before 1425 – verb, to fill to capacity, to stuff.[5]
  • before 1475 – crowded with people or animals.[5]
  • before 1500 – perfect, complete, in Henryson (now rare).[5]
  • 1614 – verb, to fill again, to replenish.[5]
  • 1877 – noun, a honeypot ant swollen with stored food.[5]
  • 1974 – complete with what is expected or required.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Abundantly supplied or filled with something: a memoir replete with anecdotes.[11][2][5]
  2. Having eaten or drunk enough or too much; sated or gorged: The guests sat replete after the feast.[11][5][8]
  3. Filled to capacity, with no space left.[5]
  4. Complete with what is expected or required: a cabin replete with a wood stove.[5]
  5. (rare) Complete, perfect.[5][8]

Verb

  1. (rare) To fill completely; to stuff or satiate.[5][2][8]
  2. (rare) To fill again; to replenish.[5][2][8]

Noun

  1. A worker ant, a honeypot ant, whose abdomen swells to store liquid food for the colony.[2][5][8]

Word family

  • repleteness
  • repletely
  • repletive
  • repletively

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Replete.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/replete. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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