reproduction

Etymology

It was formed from English re- + production, after the verb reproduce.^[2][3][4] Compare Medieval Latin reproductio, recorded in the 15th century, and French reproduction, used of living things perpetuating their species from 1690.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of forming or bringing something into existence again: a1640, in Thomas Jackson's Μαραν Αθα.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1650s and Merriam-Webster to about 1640.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the word only as "the act of producing anew", with an example from Robert Boyle.^[6] The general sense soon branched out: in Scots law, the returning of documents or evidence to the court (1650), in biology the regrowth of lost tissue (1728, now rare), the recalling of an idea to the mind (1766), and in political economy, especially later in Marxist theory, the renewal of the conditions of production (1766).^[2] The biological sense of producing offspring and so continuing a species is recorded from 1713 in the OED and by 1782 in Etymonline.^[2][5] In the arts, a reproduction was a copy, especially of a picture made by engraving or photography, from 1701 in the OED and 1807 in Etymonline;^[2][5] in the 20th century the word came to be used especially of something made in the style of an earlier period, such as furniture.^[5][2] The copying of texts and images in print is recorded from 1793, and the reproducing of sound, with the quality of it, from 1908, in a Sears, Roebuck catalogue.^[2][5]

Timeline

• a1640 – the action of producing again.^[2]
• 1650 – (Scots law) return of documents or evidence to the court.^[2]
• 1701 – a copy, especially of a work of art.^[2]
• 1713 – (biology) the production of offspring.^[2]
• 1728 – (biology) regrowth of tissue.^[2]
• 1766 – the recalling of an idea, and (political economy) renewal of production.^[2]
• 1793 – the copying of a text or image.^[2]
• 1908 – the reproducing of sound.^[2][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (biology) The process, sexual or asexual, by which animals and plants produce new individuals of their kind.
2. A copy of a work of art, especially one made by photography or printing; also, furniture or another object made in the style of an earlier period: a reproduction of a Georgian dresser.
3. The quality with which sound or images are reproduced by equipment: The speakers give clear reproduction at low volume.
4. The act or process of reproducing or copying something.
5. (economics) In Marxist theory, the renewal of the means and conditions of production.

Word family

• microreproduction
• nonreproduction
• photoreproduction
• sexual reproduction
• asexual reproduction

Related words

• reproduce
• produce
• production
• reproductive

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.