reprobate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reprobaten, past participle reprobate,^[2] borrowed from Late Latin reprobātus (“rejected, condemned”),^[3][4][5][6] the past participle of reprobō (“to disapprove, reject, condemn”),^[3][4][7][8] and the revised OED calls the participle classical Latin, dating the verb to the 2nd century AD.^[9] The Latin verb is formed from re-, here perhaps marking a reversal of a previous condition,^[4][10] and probō (“to prove worthy, approve”).^[9][4][10] The OED compares the related Latin reprobus, used of money rejected as below standard; the Vulgate applies it to a depraved mind, and Tertullian to people predestined to damnation.^[9] Barnhart allows that the verb could also be a back-formation from reprobation, which is slightly earlier, or could have grown out of the adjective.^[5][9] The noun is either the Latin participle used as a noun or the English adjective used as a noun.^[9][5][4] Reprove is the earlier English word from the same Latin verb, which came through French.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rejected by God, damned: probably before 1425, in a translation of Catherine of Siena's Orcherd of Syon: "obstynat folk and reprobate folk".^[9][2] Barnhart dates the adjective and the verb to probably before 1425, from a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[5] and Etymonline gives "rejected as worthless" as the first sense of the adjective, in the early 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was theological first: in Late Latin the participle described a person cast away from God,^[12][10] and in English it stood opposite the elect.^[9] Weekley calls it originally a word of biblical language, noting that at 2 Corinthians 13:5 Tyndale and Coverdale have castaway where Wyclif has reprevable.^[12] In the 16th century the adjective moved from God's rejection to moral character: a depraved mind from 1531, an unprincipled person from 1557.^[9] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense a century later, to 1660 and the 1650s.^[5][4] The noun followed the same path, from a person rejected by God (1532) to a wicked person or rogue (1592, in Nashe).^[9][5] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as lost to virtue and the noun as a wretch abandoned to wickedness.^[13] The verb meant from the 15th century both to reject and to disapprove of; "reject, set aside" is now rare,^[9] but it survives in the Scots-law phrase to approbate and reprobate.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1425 – adjective, rejected by God.^[9][2]
• c. 1451 – verb, of God, to reject or cast off, in Capgrave.^[9][2]
• before 1475 – verb, to disapprove of, condemn, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[9] Barnhart dates it to probably before 1425.^[5]
• 1531 – adjective, of the mind, depraved.^[9]
• 1532 – noun, a person rejected by God, in Thomas More.^[9][14] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the noun to 1545.^[5][15]
• c. 1545 – adjective, rejected as worthless or impure.^[9]
• 1548 – noun, the reprobate, such people as a class.^[9]
• 1557 – adjective, of a person, wicked, unprincipled.^[9]
• 1592 – noun, a wicked person, a rogue.^[9][5]
• 1609 – verb, to reject, set aside.^[9]
• 1726 – verb, in Scots law, to reject a deed as not binding.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A morally unprincipled person; a scoundrel: The novel's hero is a charming reprobate who ruins everyone he meets.^{[3][16][14][9]}
2. A disreputable, roguish person; a rogue.^[16][14]
3. (theology) A person rejected by God and predestined to damnation, as opposed to the elect.^[3][14][9]

Adjective

1. Morally unprincipled; depraved: He led a reprobate life in the port towns.^{[3][16][14][9]}
2. (theology) Rejected by God and without hope of salvation.^{[3][16][14][9]}
3. Deserving condemnation.^[9]
4. (archaic) Rejected as worthless or impure.^[14][9][8]

Verb

1. To disapprove of strongly; to condemn: The synod reprobated the new practice.^{[3][16][14][9]}
2. (theology) Of God, to abandon a person to eternal damnation.^[3][16][9]
3. (rare) To reject or set aside.^[9][14][13]
4. (law) Chiefly in Scots law, to reject a deed as not binding, now mostly in to approbate and reprobate.^[9]

Word family

• reprobation
• reprobative
• reprobatory
• reprobater
• unreprobated

Related words

• reprove
• prove
• probate
• approbate

Usage notes

The OED gives the adjective both /ˈrɛprəbət/ and /ˈrɛprəbeɪt/, and the verb and the noun only /ˈrɛprəbeɪt/.^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins