reitero

Forms

reiterō (present infinitive reiterāre, perfect active reiterāvī, supine reiterātum); first conjugation.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + iterō (“to repeat”).^[1][2][3]

According to the TLL, Romance words for working the soil a second time continue it: Spanish edrar and Portuguese redrar “to dig over vineyards again”, and Friulian redrá “to heap up earth round millet and similar plants”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Donatus (c. 310–380 AD), commenting on Terence, uses it of repeating a word: tu, when repeated, makes tute and tutemet.^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

A reading in Apuleius' Metamorphoses cited by the older dictionaries is a false variant for iterō.^[1][5] Christian writers used it of repeating what had been said or written, as Ambrosiaster of Paul restating a point, and Hesychius of the lawgiver repeating what he had set out.^[1] It was also used of doing something again, as in the Itinerary of Antoninus of Piacenza of refilling a vessel with oil, and Gregory of Tours has it in his work on the course of the stars.^[1][5]

English took the past participle in the early 15th century as reiterate, at first in medicine and alchemy.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 310–380 AD – Donatus uses it of repeating a word.^[1][4]
• last third of the 4th century AD – Ambrosiaster uses it of Paul restating a point.^[1][4]
• 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours uses it in his work on the course of the stars.^[1][5][4]
• early 15th century – English takes it from the past participle as reiterate.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To repeat, say or write again.^[1][2][5]
2. To do again, perform a second time.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn