revue

Etymology

It is borrowed from French revue (“review, survey”),^[2][3][4][5] the noun use of the feminine past participle of revoir (“to see again”).^[6][7] The French word goes back to Old French reveue, which English had borrowed earlier as review;^[4][6][3] the French meaning "light theatrical entertainment" is recorded only after the English one.^[2] The Old French verb, reveeir, is from Latin revideō, from re- (“again”) and videō (“to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *weid- (“to see”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A light theatrical entertainment of short sketches, songs and comic turns: 1840, in The Times, in the OED, which revised the entry in 2010.^[2] Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to 1872, a show that reviews current events and fashions with humour or satire.^[5][3][6]

Semantic evolution

At first a revue was a show that passed recent events, and especially the plays of the past year, in satirical review.^[3][6][5] By the 1890s, Etymonline says, the word was used for any elaborate musical show made of a series of unconnected scenes.^[6] From 1872 it was also used, rarely, in the plain French sense of a review or retrospective survey,^[2] and figuratively, from 1934 in T. S. Eliot, of something likened to a revue.^[2] Collins notes that the form review is also, less commonly, used for the show.^[8]

Timeline

• 1840 – a light entertainment of sketches, comic turns and songs.^[2]
• 1872 – a show reviewing current events; also, rarely, a review or survey.^[2][3][5]
• 1890s – any elaborate musical show of unconnected scenes.^[6]
• 1934 – figurative, something likened to a revue.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light theatrical entertainment made up of short sketches, songs, dances and comic turns, often satirizing recent events: She first appeared on stage in a student revue.^[8][5][2]
2. The genre of such entertainments.^[9]

Word family

• revuist

Related words

• review
• view
• vision
• revise

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press