reveal

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rɪˈviːl/, /rəˈviːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English revelen, borrowed from Old French reveler,^[2][3][4] from Latin revēlāre (“to unveil, uncover, disclose”), from re- (“back”) and vēlāre (“to cover, veil”), from vēlum (“a veil”).^[2][3][5] It is related to veil and revelation.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make known in a supernatural or divine way, as religious truth: about 1375 in the OED, about 1400 in Etymonline.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

To disclose or make known by speaking is from about 1425.^[8] To show, make visible or expose to sight is from about 1500,^[2][8] and to betray was a rare sense of 1640, now obsolete.^[8] The noun, a revelation or disclosure, is from 1629,^[8] and in theatre or magic, the act of revealing something at a climax, is a recent sense.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – of divine revelation.^[8]
• c. 1425 – to divulge.^[8]
• c. 1500 – to show.^[2][8]
• 1629 – noun, a revelation.^[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make known something secret or hidden; to disclose.
2. To show something that was hidden from view.
3. Of God, to make known divine truths.

Noun

1. The revealing of something hidden, especially as the climax of a show or trick.

Word family

• revealable
• revealer
• revealment
• revealability
• revealingly
• revealingness
• revelation
• revealed religion

Related words

• veil
• unveil
• voile
• velum
• revealing

Usage notes

Reveal, expose, disclose, divulge and betray all mean to make known what was or should be kept from others; reveal suggests uncovering something hidden.^[10] A different noun reveal, the side of a door or window opening at right angles to the wall, is from 1688, from obsolete revale “to lower”, from Old French revaler, and was later altered under the influence of the verb.^[8][5][7]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin