reproduce

Etymology

It is formed from English re- + produce,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} probably partly after French reproduire (“to produce again”), recorded from 1539.^[2][4][8] Produce comes from Latin prōdūcō (“to lead or bring forth”), from prō (“forth”) and dūcō (“to lead”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To present a person or thing again: 1584, in the records of the Burgh Court of Perth.^[2] The OED revised its first date in 2009;^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster begin with Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611, where it means to bring into existence again, to create anew.^[3][4][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The early senses were all of producing something again: an occurrence (1626), something immaterial (1666, in Boyle) or a substance by a chemical change (1666).^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as to produce again or anew.^[9] The biological sense, of an organism producing offspring, is recorded from 1650 in the OED,^[2] but Barnhart and Etymonline date it, as an intransitive verb, only to 1894.^[3][4] The sense of copying developed from presenting again in print (1787) to copying a picture or work of art (1838),^[2] which Barnhart and Etymonline date to 1850.^[3][4] Sound recording added a further sense in 1872;^[2] from 1886 a picture was said to reproduce well or badly when copied.^[2]

Timeline

• 1584 – to present a person or thing again.^[2]
• 1611 – to bring again into existence, to create anew.^[2][3]
• 1626 – to bring about an occurrence again.^[2]
• 1650 – of an organism, to produce offspring.^[2]
• 1666 – in chemistry, to produce a substance again.^[2]
• 1743 – to regenerate a lost limb.^[2]
• 1756 – to recreate in the mind.^[2]
• 1795 – to stage a play again.^[2]
• 1838 – to copy a picture or work of art.^[2]
• 1872 – to replay or relay sound.^[2]
• 1894 – intransitive, to generate offspring.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a copy or likeness of something, as by printing, photography or recording: The postcard reproduces a painting by Turner.^[10][6][2]
2. Of an organism, to produce offspring by a sexual or asexual process.^[10][6][2]
3. To produce, do or bring about again; to repeat a result: Other laboratories failed to reproduce the experiment.^[10][6][2]
4. To bring back into existence; to re-create.^[10][2]
5. To bring a scene or event back to mind through the memory or the imagination.^[10][2]
6. Of printed material, to come out in a certain way when copied.^[2][10]
7. To regenerate a lost part of the body.^[6][2]

Word family

• reproducer
• reproducibility
• reproducible
• reproducibly

Related words

• reproduction
• produce
• reproductive

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 t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins