reproach

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reprochen, also reprocen,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman reprocher and reprochier (modern French reprocher), meaning to recall something disagreeable to someone, to blame or criticize, or to rebuke, all recorded in Old French in the 12th century.^[4][3][5] The noun is inherited from Middle English reproche, also reproce, borrowed from Old French reproche (“blame, shame, disgrace”), formed from the French verb.^[4][2][3][6] The verb probably comes from Vulgar Latin *repropiō (“to bring back near”),^[4][7][8] formed from Latin re- and prope (“near”),^[4][7][9] on the model of Late Latin appropiō, the source of approach.^[4][10][8] The OED compares Old Occitan repropchar, Spanish reprochar and Italian rimprocciare, all from French or Occitan or modelled on them.^[4] Etymonline notes that other French etymologists derived it from *reprobicō, from reprobus (“rejected”), reprobō (“to disapprove, reject”), the source of reprobate.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart dates the noun reproce, a rebuke, insult or object of scorn, and the verb reprocen, to rebuke, to about 1350,^[2] and Etymonline both to the mid-14th century.^[3] The OED, which treats reproce as a separate earlier word, dates the verb reproach, to censure or upbraid a person, to before 1400, in a prose Life of Christ, and the noun, blame directed at a person, to Chaucer's Parson's Tale (about 1390).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains that by the time the Romance verb, literally "to bring back near", reached Old French, it had come to mean bringing someone face to face with something for which they deserved blame;^[8] Weekley compares vorwerfen (“to reproach”), literally "to throw before".^[11] Skeat saw it as a translation of Latin obiciō (“to cast before, reproach”).^[12] In English the noun moved from blame directed at a person to the shame or disgrace that falls on someone (about 1439, in Lydgate) and to a thing that is a source of disgrace (about 1450);^[4][3] from the Geneva Bible of 1560 to the late 18th century it could also mean an object of scorn.^[4] The verb's sense "to revile, abuse" is from the 1510s;^[3] the OED records it as obsolete.^[4] The phrase beyond reproach is recorded from 1674,^[4] and the Reproaches, verses sung in the Good Friday liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, from 1839.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "censure; infamy; shame".^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – noun reproce, a rebuke, insult, object of scorn; verb reprocen, to rebuke.^[2][3]
• c. 1390 – noun, blame directed at a person, in Chaucer.^[4][2]
• before 1400 – verb, to censure or upbraid a person.^[4]
• c. 1439 – shame or disgrace falling on a person.^[4]
• c. 1450 – a source or cause of disgrace.^[4]
• before 1475 – to censure a thing or act.^[4]
• 1485 – an expression of blame; a rebuke.^[4]
• 1560 – an object of scorn (obsolete by 1797).^[4]
• 1561 – reflexive, reproach oneself.^[4]
• 1674 – beyond reproach.^[4]
• 1839 – the Reproaches of the Good Friday liturgy.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An expression of blame or disapproval; a rebuke.^[10][14]
2. Blame or censure in general: She gave him a look of quiet reproach.^[14][4]
3. (rare) Disgrace or shame.^[14][4]
4. Something that brings disgrace or discredit on someone: The flooded wards were a reproach to the hospital board.^[14][4]
5. beyond reproach: so good that no one could find fault with it.^[4][14]
6. the Reproaches (Roman Catholic Church): verses and responses sung on Good Friday.^[4]

Verb

1. To express disapproval to someone for a fault; to upbraid or rebuke: He reproached his brother for missing the funeral.^[10][14][4]
2. reproach oneself: to feel or express regret for one's own fault.^[4][15]
3. (archaic) To bring disgrace or discredit on.^[14][4]

Word family

• reproachable
• reproachableness
• reproachably
• reproacher
• reproachful
• reproachfully
• reproachfulness
• reproachingly

Related words

• approach
• rapprochement
• propinquity
• reprobate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ 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. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press