retaliate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin retāliō (“to pay back in kind”), formed on its past participial stem,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in the 2nd century in Aulus Gellius for making amends for a wrong by an equal punishment and only sparingly afterwards.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster call the verb Late Latin.^[6][7] It is formed from re- (“back”) and tāliō (“exaction of payment in kind”),^[2][3][6] a noun based on tālis (“such, of such a kind”);^[8][9][3] the source of talion and of the phrase lex talionis.^[10][8] Partridge thought the noun probably akin to Irish and Welsh words for paying.^[10] Barnhart takes the English verb as probably a back-formation from retaliation, which is earlier,^[11][12] and the OED also points to the earlier noun.^[2] The OED notes that close parallels of these words are not found in the Romance languages.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To return or repay an injury or insult in kind: 1606, in a sermon by Bishop W. Barlow at Paul's Cross.^[2] Merriam-Webster also dates it to 1606,^[7] while Barnhart and Etymonline give 1611 and the 1610s.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant simply to pay back in kind, whether good or evil:^[13][3] Weekley quotes Speed (1611) on the King's wish to retaliate his subjects' affection,^[13] and the OED records the sense of repaying a kindness until 1876.^[2] By the 1630s, according to Etymonline, it was used of injuries and ill-treatment.^[3] The intransitive sense, to take revenge or attack in return, appears in 1640,^[2] and it is now the usual one;^[14][7] the transitive use with the injury as object is now rare except in Indian English.^[2][14] Johnson (1755) defined it as returning like for like.^[15] A rare verb retaliate, to parcel out, recorded once in 1640 in T. Fuller, is apparently an alteration of retail.^[2]

Timeline

• 1606 – to repay an injury in kind; to avenge.^[2][7]
• 1611 – to repay a kindness (obsolete by 1876).^[2][13]
• before 1634 – to cast an accusation or hostile act back upon someone.^[2]
• 1640 – intransitive, to take revenge; to attack in return.^[2]
• 1813 – retaliatory.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strike back or take revenge, returning an injury, insult or attack in kind: When one side raised its tariffs, the other retaliated.^[14][7][2]
2. To repay an injury or wrong in kind; to avenge it.^[7][2] Collins labels this use rare.^[14]
3. To cast an accusation back upon the person who made it.^[14][7][2]

Word family

• retaliation
• retaliator
• retaliative
• retaliatory
• unretaliated
• unretaliating

Related words

• talion

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.