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
- A spoken or written answer or reply.
- A reaction to something, especially to a stimulus.
- Words said or sung by the congregation or choir in reply to the priest.
- (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
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ 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