reunite

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin reūnītus, the past participle of reūniō (“to unite again”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} first taken into English as the participle reunite, reunited.^[2][3][8] The Medieval Latin verb, recorded in British sources from the 13th century,^[2] is formed from re- (“again”) and Late Latin ūniō (“to join together, make into one”),^[4][5][6] which the OED counts as classical Latin;^[2] it comes from Latin ūnus (“one”).^[4] The OED compares Middle French reunir, French réunir, Spanish reunir and Italian riunire.^[2] The noun reunion has a separate source, réunion.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Joined again, reunited, used only as a past participle: about 1429, in the Mirour of Mans Saluacioune.^[2] Barnhart dates this participle to before 1500,^[3] and Etymonline dates the verb to about 1500.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The participle reunite was used until 1535,^[2] and the full verb, to bring together again what had been separated, is first recorded in 1579, in Fenton's translation of Guicciardini;^[2] Barnhart dates the verb to 1591.^[3] The reflexive use, to come together again, followed in 1596, in Ralegh, and the plain intransitive use in 1613.^[2] Etymonline dates the intransitive sense to the 1650s.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave the transitive verb two senses, to join again what is divided, and to reconcile people at variance.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1429 – past participle reunite, joined again (until 1535).^[2]
• 1579 – to bring together again.^[2]
• 1596 – reflexive, to come together again.^[2]
• 1613 – intransitive, to come together again.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring together again people or things that have been separated: The search team reunited the hikers with their families.^[10][5][2]
2. To come together again after a separation: The band reunited for one last tour.^[10][5][2]

Word family

• reunitable
• reuniter

Related words

• reunion
• unite
• union
• one

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins