requital

Etymology

It is formed from English requite + -al, with the suffix that makes nouns of verbs.^[2][3][4][5] The verb is itself formed from re- and obsolete quiten (“to discharge, pay”), an early variant of quit,^[2][6][7][8] although Etymonline also allows a borrowing from Old French requiter.^[4] Etymonline takes quit back through Old French quite and Medieval Latin quitus to Latin quiētus (“free, at rest”), from Proto-Indo-European *kweie- (“to rest, be quiet”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A repayment, a reward, a return: 1545, in Elyot's Preseruatiue agaynste Deth.^[2][6] Barnhart dates the word to 1579,^[5] Etymonline to the 1570s,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1570–80.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The noun kept the double sense of requite, which from the start could repay either good or ill.^[4][10] The kindly sense came first, with a return or reward in 1545 and recompense for a service, effort or feeling in 1556.^[2] The hostile one follows in 1569, as an act of retaliation, and then in 1597, in Hooker, as retribution for an injury.^[2] The phrase in requital shows the same pair: in return from 1573 and in revenge from 1588.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a return for any good or bad office, or retaliation, and quoted Hooker and Shakespeare.^[10] The sense "compensation", with for, is a rare later use from 1885.^[2]

Timeline

• 1545 – a repayment, reward or return.^[2][6]
• 1556 – recompense for a service or kindness; return of a feeling.^[2]
• 1569 – an act of retaliation or vengeance.^[2]
• 1573 – in requital, in return.^[2]
• 1588 – in requital, in revenge.^[2]
• 1597 – retribution or reparation for an injury, in Hooker.^[2]
• 1885 – compensation, with for.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A return or repayment for a kindness or service; recompense or reward: He asked for no requital for his years of help.^[11][6][2]
2. Retaliation or retribution for an injury or wrong; revenge.^[6][2][3]
3. The act of requiting.^[11][6]
4. in requital (of, for): in return for, or in revenge for, something.^[2][6]
5. (rare) Compensation, followed by for.^[2]

Word family

• nonrequital

Related words

• requite
• quit
• quite
• quiet

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 q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins