Etymologically
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revoke

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɹɪˈvəʊk/, /rɪˈvəʊk/[1]
  • US: /ɹɪˈvoʊk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English revoken,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French revoquer,[2][3][4][5] also Anglo-Norman revocer and revoker,[6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin revocō (“to call back, recall; to cancel, annul”).[6][8][9][10] In French the verb is recorded at the end of the 12th century as revochier, to call back; the sense "to declare void, annul" dates from 1261.[6] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1371, meaning "to annul" and "to remove from office".[7] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and vocō (“to call”),[2][3][4] which is related to vōx (“voice”),[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to speak”).[2][4] The OED compares Spanish revocar, Portuguese revocar, Catalan revocar and Italian revocare.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a retraction: about 1350, according to Barnhart and Etymonline.[3][2] The OED's first record is from about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, for recalling a person to a right belief or way of life.[6] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1300–50.[11]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept much of the range of Latin revocāre: to call a person back to the faith (from about 1384), to retract something said (about 1390), to restore to life (in Chaucer's Troilus, before 1413) and to recall someone from exile or an office abroad (about 1425).[6] Trench noted that it once had a far wider meaning than now, quoting Golding's Ovid, where a wolf would not be revoked from the slaughter, and Chapman's Odyssey, where knees revoked their first strength.[12] The sense that has lasted, "to annul, repeal, cancel", is recorded from about 1400,[6][3][2] and Johnson (1755) gave "to repeal; to reverse" first.[13] At cards the verb has meant failing to follow suit since the 16th century,[14] and the noun for such a failure is recorded from 1709;[6][15] the older noun, revocation, now lives on chiefly in beyond revoke.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1350 – to make a retraction.[3][2]
  • c. 1384 – to call a person back to a right belief (obsolete by 1687).[6]
  • c. 1390 – to retract or take back a statement; to recant.[6]
  • c. 1400 – to annul, repeal, rescind.[6][3]
  • before 1413 – to bring back to life, in Chaucer (obsolete by 1851).[6]
  • c. 1425 – to recall a person, especially from exile.[6]
  • 1465 – to dismiss from an office.[6]
  • 1498 – noun, revocation, repeal.[6]
  • 1586 – to call back to memory.[6]
  • 1709 – noun, at cards, a failure to follow suit.[6][15]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cancel or annul something by withdrawing it; to rescind: The council revoked the club's licence.[10][16][6]
  2. (cards) To fail to follow suit when able to do so, in breach of the rules; to renege.[10][17]
  3. To take back something said or written; to retract.[6]
  4. To call back to mind; to recall.[16][6]
  5. (rare) To summon a person back, especially from exile or an office abroad.[6][8]
  6. (obsolete, 1384–1687) To bring a person back to a right belief or way of life.[6][8]
  7. (obsolete, 1413–1851) To bring back to life; to restore to consciousness.[6][8]

Noun

  1. (cards) A failure to follow suit when required; a renege.[10][16][6]
  2. Revocation or cancellation, now chiefly in beyond revoke.[16][6]

Word family

  • revoker
  • revokingly
  • revocable
  • revokable
  • irrevocable
  • revocation
  • unrevoked

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  16. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  17. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin