reprimand

Etymology

It is borrowed from French réprimande,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Middle French in 1588 and in 1549 as réprimende,^[2] from reprimendus, the gerundive of reprimō (“to hold back, curb, repress”).^[2][3][5][6] The OED thinks it arose in a phrase Medieval Latin *reprimenda culpa (“fault to be controlled”), while noting that the phrase is apparently unattested;^[2] Klein and Etymonline give the same phrase without that caution.^[6][3] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and premō (“to press”),^[3][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to strike”).^[3] The spelling with -a- is put down to French mander (“to summon, order”).^[3][6][7][5] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the French through Spanish reprimenda,^[8][9][10] but the OED, revised in 2009, records the Spanish word only from the mid-18th century, and takes reprimenda (1594) as probably from French.^[2] Klein compares other English words from gerundives, such as agenda.^[6] The verb is probably partly a conversion of the noun and partly borrowed from French réprimander (“to censure”), recorded in Middle French in 1535 as reprimender.^[2][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sharp rebuke or censure: 1636, in a text printed in R. F. Williams's Birch's Court and Times of Charles I.^[2][4][5] Etymonline gives the same decade.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun has from the start implied authority: Etymonline adds that it was given especially by a magistrate,^[3] and the OED notes in British law the formal rebuke given by a judge or magistrate.^[2] The verb first took an action or quality as its object, for censuring it (1660, in G. Mackenzie's Aretina), and only then a person (1681, in a letter of H. Prideaux).^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster's Unabridged date the verb to that later year.^[4][5] For a short time (1689–1710) the verb also meant "to repress, restrain", probably after French réprimer.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the noun by "reproof; reprehension", with a "secret reprimand" from the Spectator, and quoted Arbuthnot for the verb on Germanicus, severely reprimanded by Tiberius.^[11]

Timeline

• 1636 – noun, a sharp rebuke.^[2][4][5]
• 1660 – verb, to censure an action or quality.^[2]
• 1681 – verb, to rebuke a person.^[2][4][5]
• 1689 – verb, to repress, restrain (obsolete by 1710).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A severe or formal rebuke, especially from someone in authority: The officer received a written reprimand for lateness.^[12][5][2]

Verb

1. To rebuke someone severely or formally; to reprove: The chairman reprimanded the council for its delay.^[12][5][2]
2. To censure or condemn an action or quality.^[2]

Word family

• reprimander
• reprimandingly
• unreprimanded

Related words

• repress
• press

Usage notes

The stress of the verb has moved over time: Johnson (1755) marked both noun and verb on the last syllable,^[11] the OED's first edition (1906) stressed the verb on the third syllable,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford still gives a verb stressed there,^[10] while the OED now gives the first syllable.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins