reschedule

Etymology

It is formed from English re- + schedule.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb schedule is recorded from the 1850s or 1860s,^[4][2] from the noun, which goes back through Old French cedule to Late Latin schedula (“strip of paper”), a diminutive of Latin scheda.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To replan or change the time of an event according to a new timetable: 1878, in the Chicago Inter Ocean.^[2][3] Etymonline dates it only to 1912,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1965–70.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED also records it from 1878, in the Leeds Mercury, for reclassifying something,^[2] a sense now used especially in the United States for moving a drug into a different legal category.^[2] An intransitive use, to change one's plans or the time of something planned, follows in 1887.^[2][7] The financial sense, arranging a new scheme for repaying a debt, appears in 1959,^[2][7] and became prominent with the international debts of developing countries.^[5][8]

Timeline

• 1878 – to change the time of an event; to reclassify.^[2][3]
• 1887 – intransitive, to change one's plans or timetable.^[2][7]
• 1959 – to arrange a new schedule for repaying a debt.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To change the time or date of a planned event: The match was rescheduled for Sunday.^[9][3][2]
2. To arrange a new schedule of repayments for a debt or loan, usually putting them off.^[9][3][2]
3. (intransitive) To make new plans according to a changed timetable.^[2]
4. To place in a different category; in the United States, especially to reclassify a drug under the law.^[2]

Related words

• schedule

Usage notes

Like schedule, it is pronounced with /ʃ/ or /sk/ in British English,^[2] while /sk/ is usual in the United States.^[9][2]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins