reveille

Etymology

It is borrowed from French réveillez (“wake up!”), the imperative plural of réveiller (“to awaken”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and Etymonline, Klein and Weekley give the full form as réveillez-vous.^[7][8][9] The OED calls the derivation only apparent, because dictionaries of French do not record this use as a noun;^[2] Weekley adds that the French military words were réveil and diane,^[9] while Skeat found the imperative used as a noun in the dialect of Forez, near Lyons.^[10] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged accordingly call the English word an alteration or modification of the French form.^[3][5] The French verb, recorded about 1155 in Old French as reveiller,^[2] is formed from re- (“again”) and éveiller (“to rouse, awake”),^[2][4] which was esveillier in Old French,^[8][5] from Vulgar Latin *exvigilō, from Latin ex- (“out”) and vigilō (“to be awake, keep watch”),^[3][7][4] from vigil (“awake, watchful”).^[3][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Dictionary.com trace the Latin step to ēvigilō instead.^[5][11] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take the Latin family back to Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong, be lively”).^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A signal to wake and get up, especially for soldiers, sounded on a drum or bugle: 1633, in H. Hexham's Iournall Anno 1632.^[2][5] The 1989 edition of the OED and Barnhart have 1644,^[12][4] Etymonline has the 1640s,^[7] and Dictionary.com gives 1635–45.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its military core, while its use widened from the signal to anything that rouses: the OED's first figurative or extended use is a poem title in the Earl of Westmorland's Otia Sacra of 1648.^[2] It also came to name the time at which the signal sounds,^[13][14] and the first military formation of the day, held after it.^[5][15] Smyth's sailors' word-book of 1867 describes it as the beat of drum at break of day, when night duties end.^[16] Merriam-Webster Unabridged records the general senses of a signal to get up or begin, and of a time of getting up.^[5]

Timeline

• 1633 – a signal to wake, especially for soldiers, on the drum or bugle.^[2][5]
• 1648 – figurative and extended use.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED dates it to 1651.^[12]
• 17th century – the spellings revelley and revalley.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A signal, usually sounded on a bugle or drum around sunrise, that wakes soldiers or sailors and calls them to the day's duties: The recruits were already dressed when reveille sounded.^[13][5][14]
2. The hour at which this signal is given.^[13][14]
3. The first military formation of the day, held after the signal.^[5][15]
4. Any signal to get up or begin; a time of getting up.^[5][15][2]

Related words

• vigil
• vigilant
• vigilante
• surveillance
• vigor

Usage notes

The OED notes that British English stresses the second syllable, while American English now usually stresses the first and has historically varied between all three.^[2] The first edition of the OED, in 1908, recorded only the less naturalized /rɪˈveɪljeɪ/.^[2] Spellings ending in -é and -ée apparently remodel the word on French nouns,^[2] and reveillé is now rare.^[14] Collins notes that the signal is also called a rouse, especially in the United States.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ Smyth, W. H. (1867), The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, London: Blackie and Son