response

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /rɪˈspɒns/, US /rɪˈspɑːns/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English respounse, later respons,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French respons (modern French réponse) and directly borrowed from Latin respōnsum (“an answer”),^[2][3][4] the noun use of the neuter past participle of respondēre (“to respond, answer, promise in return”),^[2][4] from re- (“back”) and spondēre (“to pledge”).^[2] It is the noun of respond.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An answer or reply: about 1300, in the form respounse;^[2][3][5] the spelling respons is from before 1338.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In church use a response was first a responsory, from before 1387,^[3] and then a part of the liturgy said or sung by the congregation in reply to the priest, by 1659.^[5][2] An oracle's answer is from 1513.^[5] The transferred sense, an action or feeling answering to a stimulus, is from 1815, in poetry and psychology,^[2][5] and the way an apparatus reacts to a stimulus from 1911.^[5] In bridge a response is a reply to a partner's bid, from 1939.^[5] Response time is from 1958.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – an answer, a reply.^[2][5]
• before 1387 – a responsory in the liturgy.^[3]
• 1513 – an oracular answer.^[5]
• 1659 – the congregation's part of the liturgy.^[5]
• 1815 – a reaction to a stimulus.^[2][5]
• 1911 – the response of an apparatus.^[5]
• 1958 – response time.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A spoken or written answer or reply.
2. A reaction to something, especially to a stimulus.
3. Words said or sung by the congregation or choir in reply to the priest.
4. (bridge) A bid made in reply to a partner's bid.

Word family

• responseless
• counterresponse
• call-and-response
• cell-mediated immune response
• conditioned response
• immune response
• response time

Related words

• respond
• responsible
• responsibility
• responsion
• responsive
• responsiveness
• responsory
• responsa
• sponsor
• spouse
• correspond

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press