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Etymology and origin of the English word repose

English has two verbs spelled repose, one meaning to rest and one meaning to place, as in placing trust in someone.[1][2] The OED notes that their senses overlap in many places and have probably influenced each other.[2]

Pronunciation

  • /ɹəˈpoʊz/, /ɹi-/[3]
  • UK: /ɹɪˈpəʊz/[3]

repose1 to rest; rest

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1450 C. d'Orleans, Poems
Borrowed from
Old French reposer via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin pausa

Etymology

The verb meaning to rest is inherited from Middle English reposen,[4][5] borrowed from Old French reposer,[4][6][7] and Anglo-Norman reposir,[2] from earlier repauser, recorded in the 10th century.[2][8][9] That comes from Late Latin repausō (“to make to rest, refresh; to rest”),[2][8][6] formed from re-, perhaps here an intensive,[8][10] and pausō (“to stop, rest”),[8][5][11] from pausa (“rest”),[6] the source of pause.[1] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1113–19.[12] The noun is borrowed from Old French repos, also Anglo-Norman repous,[2] itself a back-formation from the French verb;[8][13][2] Barnhart and the Shorter Oxford allow that the English noun may instead have developed from the English verb.[11][9] Skeat thought that the French verb seems to be the one that gave rise to poser and its compounds.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To rest oneself, used reflexively: about 1450, in the poems of C. d'Orleans, of loue repos, to rest from love.[4][2] Barnhart has about 1450, and Etymonline the mid-15th century.[11][8] The noun is first recorded about 1485, in Hay's Buke of Gouernaunce of Princis;[2] Etymonline has about 1500, and Barnhart 1509, in Hawes.[8][11]

Semantic evolution

French had the reflexive, intransitive and transitive uses from the 12th century,[2] and Weekley notes that in English too the intransitive sense replaced an earlier reflexive one.[15] The sense of lying down soon extended to lying in death.[2][7] From the 16th century the word could also mean to lean or rely on someone, a use the OED compares with se reposer sur (“to rely on”); it died out in the 19th century.[2] The later sense "to be based on" is recorded from Gibbon, before 1794.[2][7] Johnson (1755) gave the noun as "sleep; rest; quiet".[16] From the 16th century the noun also meant a state of calm in general,[2] and it passed into painting: Dryden, in 1695, used it for the restful effect of a picture's arrangement and for the shadows that give the eye relief.[2][16] Composure of manner is recorded from 1815, and a relaxed state of the face or muscles, often in the phrase in repose, from 1864.[2] In the 17th century English also tried the nouns reposal and reposance, the second of which the prosodist Saintsbury wished revived.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1450 – reflexive, to rest from something.[4][2]
  • before 1470 – reflexive, to rest oneself, especially by sleeping.[2][4]
  • c. 1485 – to lie down to rest, also to rest in death; noun, rest from exertion, especially sleep.[2]
  • 1494 – intransitive, to break off from activity.[2]
  • c. 1525 – to lay a person or part of the body down to rest.[2]
  • 1539 – to rest one's confidence in someone (obsolete by 1852).[2]
  • c. 1543 – noun, quiet, ease, freedom from care.[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1650s.[8]
  • 1577 – noun, tranquillity, stillness.[2]
  • 1621 – noun, a place of rest (obsolete by 1797).[2]
  • 1695 – noun, a restful arrangement of the elements of a picture.[2]
  • 1737 – noun, the Repose of the Virgin Mary, her death.[2]
  • 1791 – of light or the gaze, to fall on something and linger.[2]
  • before 1794 – to depend or be based on something.[2]
  • 1815 – noun, composure, ease of manner.[2]
  • 1864 – noun, a relaxed state of the face or a muscle.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lie down to rest; to sleep or relax: The travellers reposed in the shade until evening.[7][2][5]
  2. To lay oneself or a part of the body down at rest: He reposed his head on a folded coat.[7][5][2]
  3. To lie dead, as in a grave.[7][2]
  4. (formal) To be based on or take support from something: Her whole case reposes on one witness.[7][2]
  5. To lie or be placed in a position: The old manuscript now reposes in a Paris library.[2][9]
  6. (literary) Of light or the gaze, to fall on something and linger.[2]
  7. (obsolete, 1567–1865) To trust in or depend on someone.[2][9]

Noun

  1. Rest after exertion, especially sleep.[5][2][9]
  2. A state of quiet and tranquillity; freedom from worry or disturbance.[7][2]
  3. Calm and dignified manner; composure.[7][2]
  4. In art, a restful effect produced by the harmony of the elements of a work.[2]
  5. (archaic) Respite or relief from something tiring or unpleasant.[2][5][9]
  6. (obsolete, 1621–1797) A place of rest.[2][9]

Word family

  • reposeful
  • reposefully
  • reposefulness
  • reposer
  • reposedness
  • altar of repose
  • angle of repose

repose2 to place, put back

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1440 translation of Palladius, De re Rustica
Borrowed from
Latin repono via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin pōnō
Etymology tree of repose2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sinō
Latin pōnō
Latin repōnō
English repose
From the same root · repose2
Latin situs ← sinō
Latin circumpōnō ← pōnō
Latin positīvus ← pōnō
Latin positūra ← pōnō
Latin postpōnō ← pōnō
Latin praepōnō ← pōnō
Latin sepono ← pōnō
Latin superpōnō ← pōnō
Latin repositōrium ← repōnō

Etymology

The verb meaning to place is inherited from Middle English reposen (“to replace, put back”),[4][5] taken by Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary as borrowed from Latin repōnō (“to put back, put away”),[11][5][6][7] through its perfect stem, irregularly shaped on the pattern of depose and dispose.[11][5] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back, away”) and pōnō (“to put, place”).[11][6][7] The OED, Hoad, Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead treat the verb as an English formation from re- and pose, modelled on the Latin verb,[2][17][1][10] and the Middle English Dictionary likewise derives it from posen, comparing the Latin.[4] Klein says it was formed on the analogy of disposen from the same prefix and French poser (“to place”).[13] Weekley took the sense of placing confidence more directly from the Latin verb.[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put back, replace: probably 1440, in a Middle English translation of Palladius's De re Rustica, in which the Latin has reponas.[4][2][11]

Semantic evolution

From putting a thing back, the verb moved to putting it in a place, especially for safe keeping, before 1500,[2] and Barnhart dates the sense of depositing to 1548.[11] The use with confidence or trust, today the main one, is recorded from 1538 in the OED, but from 1560 in Barnhart,[2][11] and it led to entrusting power or responsibility to someone, from about 1548.[2][9] Johnson (1755), who derived the verb from Latin, listed among the senses of the transitive verb "to place as in confidence or trust", quoting Dryden.[16] In Scotland it meant to restore a person to a former position, as in a minister reposed to his ministry,[2][18] and an intransitive use, of power lying in the hands of a person or institution, appears in 1831.[2] Surgeons used it from 1886 for restoring a part to its normal position.[2] Merriam-Webster now calls the sense of depositing archaic.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1440 – to put back, replace (obsolete by 1660).[2][4]
  • before 1500 – to place for safe keeping, to store.[2]
  • 1538 – to place confidence or trust in someone.[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1560.[11]
  • c. 1548 – to entrust power or responsibility to someone.[2]
  • 1552 – in Scotland, to restore a person to a former position (obsolete by 1688).[2]
  • 1831 – intransitive, of power, to lie in the control of someone.[2]
  • 1886 – in surgery, to restore a part to its normal position.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To place confidence or trust in someone or something, usually with in: The town reposed full trust in its new mayor.[5][2][9]
  2. To place power or management in the hands of a person or body: The charter reposes authority in a council of elders.[5][2][9]
  3. (archaic) To put away or set down; to deposit.[5][2][9]
  4. (surgery, rare) To restore a part to its normal position.[2]
  5. (obsolete, 1440–1660) To put back or replace.[2][4][9]
  6. (obsolete, 1552–1688) To restore a person to a former position; to reinstate.[2][18][9]

Word family

  • reposal

References

  1. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ 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 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  18. ^ a b 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Repose.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/repose. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

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