reprieve

Etymology

It first appears as repry, at first in the past participle, and is apparently borrowed from Old French repris (“taken back”), the Anglo-Norman and Middle French past participle of reprendre (“to take back”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} That verb is from Latin reprehendō (“to hold back, seize”), ^[7][8][9] formed from re- (“back, again”) and prehendō (“to seize, take”).^[9][4] The -v- that replaced the older form in the 16th century is unexplained:^[4][3][9] the American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged suggest the influence of Middle English repreven, a variant of reproven (“to rebuke, refute”), the source of reprove,^{[7][10][5][11]} while the OED thinks the final consonant perhaps came by association with deprive and explains the vowel by analogy with words such as relieve.^[2] Weekley adds that the Middle English verb regularly translated the French verb in the sense "to reprehend", which may have helped the confusion,^[12] and Klein calls the word a blend.^[8] Skeat had taken it as a doublet of that verb, "to reprieve a sentence" being to disallow it.^[13] The modern spelling dates from the 1640s, perhaps on the model of achieve.^[5] The noun is from the verb.^[2][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To take or send a prisoner back to prison, to remand: before 1513, in Fabyan's New Chronicles of England and France.^[2] Barnhart dates the earlier form repryen, to remand or detain, to 1494,^[10] and Weekley to about 1500.^[12] Etymonline dates the form reprive in this sense to the 1570s,^[5] and Ayto quotes Edmund Campion's History of Ireland (1571): "Of this treason he was found guilty, and reprieved in the Tower a long time".^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word reversed its meaning.^[14][4] Being sent back to prison was often the alternative to execution, so the verb soon came to mean to suspend a death sentence.^[9][5] In the middle of the 16th century it meant to postpone or delay, especially a legal process (1548–1868),^[2][14] while from 1552 it meant to grant a person a respite from punishment, especially from execution.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "to suspend an impending execution" to the 1590s.^[5] The noun followed in 1592, in Nashe,^[2][11] and Shakespeare used it for the period of respite in Measure for Measure;^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a "respite after sentence of death", with quotations from that play.^[15] From the 1630s the noun had the general sense of a respite or temporary escape from something unpleasant,^[5][2] and the verb was likewise used of rescuing a person or thing for a time from death, pain or damage.^[2] Two rarer senses, "to redeem" (about 1567–1601) and "to pardon a fault" (1591–1760), died out.^[2] The United States Constitution gives the president the power to grant reprieves and pardons.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1513 – to send back to prison, to remand (obsolete by 1622).^[2]
• 1548 – to postpone, delay (obsolete by 1868).^[2][11]
• 1552 – to grant a respite from punishment, especially to suspend the execution of a condemned person.^[2]
• 1592 – noun, the act of reprieving someone from punishment, in Nashe.^[2][11]
• 1602 – noun, a warrant suspending a death sentence.^[2]
• before 1616 – noun, the period of respite, in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.^[2]
• 1635 – noun, a respite or temporary escape from pain or difficulty.^[2][5]
• 1640s – the modern spelling.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To postpone or cancel the punishment of someone, especially one sentenced to death: The governor reprieved the prisoner hours before the hanging.^[16][11][2]
2. To give temporary relief to someone or something, or to save it for a time from harm or closure: The grant reprieved the village library for another year.^[16][11][2]
3. (obsolete, 1513–1622) To send a prisoner back to prison; to remand.^[2][3]
4. (obsolete, 1548–1868) To put off or delay.^[2][11]

Noun

1. The postponement or cancellation of a punishment, especially of a death sentence.^[16][11][2]
2. A warrant granting such a postponement; now chiefly historical.^[16][2]
3. A temporary relief or respite from something unpleasant: The rain brought a brief reprieve from the heat.^[16][11][2]

Word family

• reprievable
• repriever
• unreprieved
• reprieval

Related words

• reprise
• reprisal
• reprehend
• reprove
• prison
• prize
• surprise

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins