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rebello

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word rebello

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
59 BC–17 AD, Livy
Ultimate origin
Latin (re-,bello)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin bello
Latin debello
Latin rebello
Latin bellator

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈbɛl.loː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈbɛl.lo][1]

Forms

rebellō (present infinitive rebellāre, perfect active rebellāvī, supine rebellātum); first conjugation, no passive[1] Some manuscripts spell it revellō.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + bellō (“to wage war”),[3][1][2] from bellum (“war”), older ⟨duellum⟩.[4] Priscian instead took it as compounded with the noun, like imbellis and rebellis.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Livy uses it often,[5] as of a people more ready to rebel than to make war.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is to rise up again against a conqueror, to revolt.[3][5] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly post-Augustan and not in Cicero or Caesar;[5] Suetonius and Quintilian have it.[5] In Ovid it is to renew a fight, as when a speaker changed into a bull fights again.[5] Of things it is to resist or break out again: Pliny the Elder has diseases thought cured breaking out again, Seneca an ailment returning and shame resisting.[3][5] Church Latin has “rebel, renew a war”.[6] Its derivative rebellis gave English rebel about 1300.[7]

Timeline

  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of peoples rising again.[3][5][8]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of renewing a fight.[5][8]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of an ailment returning.[3][8]
  • c. 1300 – English rebel, from the derived adjective.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To renew a war; to revolt, rebel, of the conquered.[3][5][1]
  2. (poetic) To renew a fight.[5]
  3. Of things, to resist; of an illness, to break out again.[3][5]

Word family

  • rebellātiō
  • rebellātrīx
  • rebelliō
  • rebellium
  • rebellis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Rebello.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/rebello. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·