restitution

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English restitucioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman restituciun and Old French restitucion,^[4][5][3] and directly borrowed from Latin restitūtiō (“a restoring, reinstatement”),^[4][5][3][6] a noun of action from the past participle of restituō (“to set up again, restore, rebuild”),^[3][7][5] formed from re- (“again”) and statuō (“to set up, establish”),^[3][8][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand, make or be firm”).^[3] Skeat explains this Latin verb as the causative of stō (“to stand”).^[9] The French word is recorded from 1251,^[4] and the Anglo-Norman one from 1212.^[10] In Christian Latin the word also had the theological sense of the restoration of all things, from the Vulgate's wording of Acts 3:21.^[4] Related Romance forms include restitución, restituição and restituzione.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The giving back of something to its proper owner, or making amends to a person for a loss or injury: before 1325, in a manuscript of the Statutes of the Realm.^[4] Barnhart dates the word to before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi, as restitucium, with the later spelling restitution from 1423,^[5] and Etymonline to the early 14th century, in the sense of making good for a crime, debt or injury.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Anglo-Norman word already covered the return of property, restoration to a former state or status, and reparation for loss or damage,^[10] and English took over the same range within a century.^[4][2] From the 1380s the word also meant restoring a thing or institution to its original state, and in theology God's final restoration of the world;^[4][7] from before 1387, in Trevisa, the reinstatement of a person in a former position.^[4] Reparation of hurt or injury followed in 1395.^[4] The phrase to make restitution is recorded from before 1400.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave "the act of restoring what is lost or taken away" as the first sense.^[11] Hoad dates the physical sense of a tendency to resume a former position to the 17th century;^[8] it is now chiefly heard in coefficient of restitution, the elasticity of colliding bodies.^[4] Later specialized uses came in obstetrics (1831), numismatics (1728) and genetics (1941),^[4] and in English law restitution of conjugal rights was a suit by one spouse against the other, recorded from 1720.^[4]

Timeline

• 1212 – Anglo-Norman restitucion, return of property.^[10]
• before 1325 – the return of something to its owner; reparation for loss or injury.^[4][5]
• c. 1384 – restoration of a thing to its original state, and God's final restoration of the world.^[4]
• before 1387 – reinstatement of a person in a former position.^[4]
• before 1400 – to make restitution.^[4]
• 1656 – the resuming of a former shape by elasticity.^[4]
• 1720 – restitution of conjugal rights, in law.^[4]
• 1728 – a Roman coin reissued in the name of an earlier emperor.^[4]
• 1831 – in obstetrics, the turning of the baby's head after birth of the head.^[4]
• 1941 – in genetics, the rejoining of a broken chromosome.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The return of something lost or stolen to its rightful owner: the restitution of looted paintings to their owners.^[12][7][4]
2. Compensation for a loss, damage or injury; reparation: The court ordered him to make restitution to his victims.^[7][4]
3. (law) Compensation for a loss or injury by restoring, as far as possible, the position that existed before it.^[12]
4. Restoration of a person to a former position or status, or of a thing to its original state.^[7][4]
5. (theology) The final restoration of all things to harmony with God.^[7][4]
6. (physics) The return of a body to its original shape after elastic deformation, as in coefficient of restitution.^[12][4]

Word family

• restitutive
• nonrestitution
• coefficient of restitution

Related words

• restitute
• restore
• statute
• constitution
• institution
• substitute
• destitute
• state

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins