英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

advertise [advertise 词源字典]: advertise: [15] When it was originally borrowed into English, from French, advertise meant ‘notice’. It comes ultimately from the Latin verb advertere ‘turn towards’ (whose past participle adversus ‘hostile’ is the source of English adverse [14] and adversity [13]). A later variant form, advertīre, passed into Old French as avertir ‘warn’ (not to be confused with the avertir from which English gets avert [15] and averse [16], which came from Latin abvertere ‘turn away’).

This was later reformed into advertir, on the model of its Latin original, and its stem form advertiss- was taken into English, with its note of ‘warning’ already softening into ‘giving notice of’, or simply ‘noticing’. The modern sense of ‘describing publicly in order to increase sales’ had its beginnings in the mid 18th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the verb was pronounced with the main stress on its second syllable, like the advertise- in advertisement.
=> adverse, adversity, verse[advertise etymology, advertise origin, 英语词源]
aisle: aisle: [15] The original English form of this word was ele. It was borrowed from Old French, which in turn took it from Latin āla ‘wing’ (the modern French form of the word, aile, has a diminutive form, aileron ‘movable control surface on an aircraft’s wing’ [20], which has been acquired by English). Besides meaning literally ‘bird’s wing’, āla was used metaphorically for ‘wing of a building’, which was the source of its original meaning in English, the ‘sides of the nave of a church’.

The Latin word comes from an unrecorded *acsla, which is one of a complex web of ‘turning’ words that include Latin axis, Greek axon ‘axis’, Latin axilla ‘armpit’ (whence English axillary and axil), and English axle. The notion of an aisle as a detached, separate part of a building led to an association with isle and island which eventually affected Middle English ele’s spelling.

From the 16th to the 18th century the word was usually spelled ile or isle. A further complication entered the picture in the 18th century in the form of French aile, which took the spelling on to today’s settled form, aisle.
=> aileron, axis
attorney: attorney: [14] Attorney was formed in Old French from the prefix a- ‘to’ and the verb torner ‘turn’. This produced the verb atorner, literally ‘turn to’, hence ‘assign to’ or ‘appoint to’. Its past participle, atorne, was used as a noun with much the same signification as appointee – ‘someone appointed’ – and hence ‘someone appointed to act as someone else’s agent’, and ultimately ‘legal agent’.

Borrowed into English, over the centuries the term came to mean ‘lawyer practising in the courts of Common Law’ (as contrasted with a solicitor, who practised in the Equity Courts); but it was officially abolished in that sense by the Judicature Act of 1873, and now survives only in American English, meaning ‘lawyer’, and in the title Attorney- General, the chief law officer of a government.
=> turn
bulletin: bulletin: [17] If a bullet is etymologically a ‘little ball’, a bulletin is a ‘little little edict’. It comes via French bulletin from Italian bulletino, which was a diminutive form of bulletta ‘document, voting slip’ (briefly introduced into English in the 17th century as bullet: ‘Elected by the Great Master and his Knights, who give their voices by bullets’, George Sandys, Travels 1615); French billet ‘letter’, and indeed English billet, as in ‘billeting’ soldiers on a house, are parallel formations on a variant of the root of bulletta.

And to return to bulletta, this was itself a diminutive form of bulla, from medieval Latin bulla ‘sealed document’, which is the source of English bull, as in ‘papal bull’.
=> billet, bull
colonel: colonel: [17] Historically, a colonel was so called because he commanded the company at the head of a regiment, known in Italian as the compagna colonnella, literally the ‘little-column company’; hence the commander himself took the title colonnella. The word colonnella is a diminutive form of colonna, which is descended from Latin columna ‘pillar’ (source of English column).

It appears first to have entered English via French in the form coronel, in which the first l had mutated to r. Spellings with this r occur in English from the 17th and 18th centuries, and it is the source of the word’s modern pronunciation. Colonel represents a return to the original Italian spelling.
=> column
domestic: domestic: [16] Domestic comes, via French domestique, from Latin domesticus, a derivative of domus ‘house’. This can be traced back to an Indo-European *domo-, *domu-, which was also the source of Greek dómos and Sanskrit dama- ‘house’, and goes back in its turn to a base *dem-, *dom- ‘build’ which gave rise to English daunt, tame, timber, and probably despot. A further derivative of domus is domicile [15], from Latin domicilium ‘dwelling-place’, and it is also the ultimate source of the wide range of English words (dominate, dominion, etc) based immediately on Latin dominus ‘master’.
=> dame, daunt, dome, dominion, tame, timber
domino: domino: [18] The word domino was borrowed from French, where it originally signified (in the 16th century) a sort of hooded cloak worn by priests. It presumably represents a form of Latin dominus ‘lord, master’, but the reason for the application has never been satisfactorily explained (one suggestion is that it comes from the ritual formula benedicamus Domino ‘let us bless the Lord’).

By the time English acquired it, it had come to mean ‘hooded cloak with a halfmask, worn at masquerades’, and by the 19th century it was being used for the mask itself. It is far from clear whether the application to the game played with small rectangular blocks, which dates in English from the 19th century, represents a new use of the same word or a return to the original Latin, but either way the reason behind the usage is not known.

A possibility that has been advanced is that the winner of the game originally shouted domino! ‘lord!’.
ethnic: ethnic: [14] Greek éthnos meant ‘nation, people’. However, its use in the Septuagint (the early Greek translation of the Old Testament) to render the Hebrew word for ‘gentile’ led to its derived adjective ethnikós, and hence Latin ethnicus, meaning virtually ‘heathen’. It was in this sense that English first acquired the word (‘an ethnic and a pagan king’, Nicholas Udall, Paraphrase of Erasmus 1545); indeed, early etymologists thought that English heathen came from éthnos. The word’s modern anthropological sense is a mid-19th-century return to its roots.
five: five: [OE] Five is one of a general Indo-European family of words signifying ‘five’. It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *pengke, which also produced Greek pénte (source of English pentagon [16], pentecost [OE] – literally ‘fiftieth day’ – pentagram [19], etc), Sanskrit panca (source of English punch ‘spiced drink’), and Latin quīnque. In due course this under-went a phonetic transformation to *pempe, which was the direct ancestor of prehistoric Germanic *fimfi. This led on in its turn to German fünf, Dutch vijf. Swedish and Danish fem, and English five.
=> finger, fist, pentagon, punch
hectic: hectic: [14] The use of hectic for referring to ‘great haste or confusion’ is a surprisingly recent development, not recorded before the first decade of the 20th century. It originally meant in English ‘suffering from fever, particularly of the sort that characterizes tuberculosis or septicaemia’ (the metaphorical progression to ‘feverishly active’ is an obvious one). English acquired the word via Old French etique and late Latin hecticus from Greek hektikós, which meant literally ‘habitual’, and hence ‘suffering from a habitual or recurrent fever, consumptive’.

It was a derivative of héxis ‘condition, habit’, which in turn was formed from the verb ékhein ‘hold, be in a particular condition’, which has also given English epoch. (The original English form of the word was etik; hectic represents a 16th-century return to the Latin form.)
heliotrope: heliotrope: [17] The heliotrope, a plant of the forget-me-not family, gets its name because its flowers always turn to face the sun (the word comes via Latin hēliotropium from Greek hēliotrópion, a compound formed from hélios ‘sun’ and -tropos ‘turning’ – as in English trophy and tropical – which designated such plants, and was also used for ‘sundial’).

In early times the word was applied to the ‘sunflower’, which has similar heliotactic habits and in Italian is called girasole (literally ‘turn-sun’), source of the Jerusalem in English Jerusalem artichoke. Another application of Greek hēliotrópion carried over into English was to a sort of green quartz which was believed to turn the sun’s rays blood-red if thrown into water.
=> trophy, tropical
improve: improve: [16] The -prove of improve has no direct connection with the verb prove, although the two have come to resemble each other over the centuries. It comes ultimately from late Latin prōde ‘advantageous’ (source of English proud). This gave Old French prou ‘profit’, which was combined in Anglo-Norman with the causative prefix em- to produce the verb emprouer. This originally meant ‘turn to a profit, turn to one’s advantage’, a sense which survives in English in one or two fossilized contexts such as ‘improve the shining hour’. Modern English ‘make or get better’ developed in the 17th century.
=> proud
mayor: mayor: [13] Mayor and major are ultimately the same word. The ancestor of mayor is Latin mājor ‘larger’, which reached English via medieval Latin mājor (used nominally as the title of various officials) and Old French maire. In Middle English the word was mair or mer, and mayor represents a partial return to the Latin form.
=> major
orient: orient: English has two separate words orient, but they come ultimately from the same source: Latin orīrī ‘rise’ (from which English also gets abort and origin). Its present participle, oriēns ‘rising’, was used for the direction of the ‘rising sun’, and hence for the ‘east’, and passed into English via Old French as the adjective and noun orient [14].

The verb orient [18] was borrowed from French orienter, a derivative of the adjective orient. It originally meant ‘turn to face the east’, and was not used for ‘ascertain or fix the direction of’ until the 19th century. Orientate emerged in the mid-19th century, probably as a back-formation from orientation [19], itself a derivative of orient.
=> abort, origin
peripatetic: peripatetic: [16] Peripatetic means literally ‘walking round’. It comes via Old French peripatetique and Latin peripatēticus from Greek peripatētikós. This was a derivative of peripatein, a compound verb formed from the prefix perí- ‘round’ and patein ‘walk’. But the Greeks used it not simply for ‘walk around’, but specifically for ‘teach while walking around’ – an allusion to the teaching methods of Aristotle, who discussed and argued with his pupils and followers while walking about in the Lyceum, a garden near the temple of Apollo in Athens.

Hence adherents of Aristotle’s school of philosophy are known as Peripatetics. The more general use of the adjective for ‘itinerant’ represents a relatively modern (17th-century) return to its etymological meaning.
posthumous: posthumous: [17] Latin postumus functioned as a superlative form of post ‘after’, and meant ‘last of all’. It was often applied to a child ‘born after the death of its father’, as being the final offspring that man could possibly have, and so began to pick up associations with the ‘period after death’. This led in turn to the perception of a link with humus ‘ground’ (source of English humble and humus) and humāre ‘bury’, and so postumus became posthumus. English adapted it direct from Latin.
relieve: relieve: [14] Relieve goes back via Old French relever to Latin relevāre ‘raise again’, a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘again’ and levāre ‘raise’ (source of English elevate, levy, etc). Its metaphorical extension to ‘lighten, alleviate’ began in Latin. The derived noun relief reached English in two phases. First, in the standard sense ‘easing, alleviation’, via Anglo-Norman relef in the 14th century; and then, in the 17th century, via French from Italian relievo in the sense ‘raised area in a design’ – a return to the etymological meaning ‘raise’.
=> elevate, levy, relevant
retrench: retrench: [16] Retrench originally meant literally ‘dig a new trench as a second line of defence’. It was borrowed from early modern French retrencher, a descendant of Old French retrenchier. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘again’ and trenchier ‘cut off’ (source of English trench, trenchant, etc). The standard present-day sense of retrench, ‘cut back, economize’, first recorded in the 17th century, is a return to the underlying meaning of French retrencher.
=> trench, trenchant
rhyme: rhyme: [12] Etymologically, rhyme and rhythm are the same word. Both go back to medieval Latin rythmus ‘rhythm’, but whereas rhythm has reached us almost unchanged, rhyme has come via a branch line. The sort of accented verse to which the medieval Latin word was applied commonly rhymed, and so when rythmus passed into early Old French as *ritme, it carried connotations of ‘rhyming’ with it.

This later developed to rime, and when English borrowed it as rime, it still contained the notion of ‘rhythm’; but by the 13th century ‘rhyme’ was becoming its main meaning. The spelling rhyme, which emerged around 1600, represents a conscious partial return to the word’s ultimate ancestors, Latin rhythmus and Greek rhuthmós.
=> rhythm
tattoo: tattoo: English has two words tattoo. The older, ‘military display’ [17], was borrowed from a Dutch word, taptoe, that means literally ‘tap to’, that is, ‘shut the tap’ – a signal to shut off the taps of the beer barrels at closing time in the taverns. By the time it reached English it was being used for a ‘drum beat signalling the time for soldiers to return to their quarters at night’, and in the 18th century it was applied to a ‘military display based on this’. The tattoo on the skin [18] was borrowed from a Polynesian language, such as Tahitian (tatau) or Marquesan (ta-tu).
=> tap
victuals: victuals: [14] Victuals are etymologically something you eat to stay ‘alive’. The word came from late Latin vīctūālia ‘provisions’, a noun use of the plural of vīctūālis ‘of nourishment’. This in turn was derived from vīctus ‘livelihood’, which was formed from the same base as vivere ‘live’ (source of English convivial, revive, survive, viper, vivacious, vivid, etc, as well as of a range of words descended from its derivative vīta ‘life’, such as vital and vitamin).

The pronunciation of the word, /vitəlz/, reflects the form in which it was originally acquired, via Old French vitaille, but its spelling represents a return to its Latin original.
=> convivial, revive, survive, viper, vivacious, vivid
ace (v.): "to score" (in sports), 1923, from ace (n.). This led in turn to the extended student slang sense of "get high marks" (1959). Related: Aced; acing.
advertise (v.): early 15c., "to take notice of," from Middle French advertiss-, present participle stem of a(d)vertir "to warn" (12c.), from Latin advertere "turn toward," from ad- "toward" (see ad-) + vertere "to turn" (see versus).

Sense shifted to "to give notice to others, warn" (late 15c.) by influence of advertisement; specific meaning "to call attention to goods for sale, rewards, etc." had emerged by late 18c. Original meaning remains in the verb advert "to give attention to." Related: Advertised; advertising.
animadversion (n.): 1590s, "criticism, blame," also sometimes in early use simply "notice, attention" (now obsolete), from Latin animadversionem (nominative animadversio) "investigation, inquiry; perception, observation," noun of action from past participle stem of animadverte "to take cognizance of," literally "to turn the mind to," from animum, accusative of animus "mind" (see animus), + advertere "to turn to" (see advertise). The sense of "to take notice of as a fault" was in Latin; in fact animadverto at times was a euphemism for "to punish with death."
attorn (v.): late 13c., Anglo-French, "to turn over to another," from Old French atorner "to turn, turn to, assign, attribute, dispose," from a- "to" (see ad-) + tourner "to turn" (see turn (v.)). In feudal law, "to transfer homage or allegiance to another lord."
author (n.): c. 1300, autor "father," from Old French auctor, acteor "author, originator, creator, instigator (12c., Modern French auteur), from Latin auctorem (nominative auctor) "enlarger, founder, master, leader," literally "one who causes to grow," agent noun from auctus, past participle of augere "to increase" (see augment). Meaning "one who sets forth written statements" is from late 14c. The -t- changed to -th- 16c. on mistaken assumption of Greek origin.
...[W]riting means revealing onesself to excess .... This is why one can never be alone enough when one writes, why even night is not night enough. ... I have often thought that the best mode of life for me would be to sit in the innermost room of a spacious locked cellar with my writing things and a lamp. Food would be brought and always put down far away from my room, outside the cellar's outermost door. The walk to my food, in my dressing gown, through the vaulted cellars, would be my only exercise. I would then return to my table, eat slowly and with deliberation, then start writing again at once. And how I would write! From what depths I would drag it up! [Franz Kafka]
ballpark (n.): "baseball stadium," 1899, from (base)ball + park (n.). Figurative sense of "acceptable range of approximation" first recorded 1954, originally in the jargon of atomic weapons scientists, perhaps originally referring to area within which a missile was expected to return to earth; the reference is to broad but reasonably predictable dimensions.
The result, according to the author's estimate, is a stockpile equivalent to one billion tons of TNT. Assuming this estimate is "in the ball park," clearly there is valid reason for urging candor on the part of our government. [Ralph E. Lapp, "Atomic Candor," in "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists," October 1954]
charcoal (n.): mid-14c., charcole, first element is either Old French charbon "charcoal," or, on the current theory, obsolete charren "to turn" (from Old English cerran) + cole "coal," thus, "to turn to coal."
clock (n.1): late 14c., clokke, originally "clock with bells," probably from Middle Dutch clocke (Dutch klok) "a clock," from Old North French cloque (Old French cloke, Modern French cloche), from Medieval Latin (7c.) clocca "bell," probably from Celtic (compare Old Irish clocc, Welsh cloch, Manx clagg "a bell") and spread by Irish missionaries (unless the Celtic words are from Latin); ultimately of imitative origin.

Replaced Old English dægmæl, from dæg "day" + mæl "measure, mark" (see meal (n.1)). The Latin word was horologium; the Greeks used a water-clock (klepsydra, literally "water thief"). Image of put (or set) the clock back "return to an earlier state or system" is from 1862. Round-the-clock (adj.) is from 1943, originally in reference to air raids. To have a face that would stop a clock "be very ugly" is from 1886. (Variations from c. 1890 include break a mirror, kill chickens.)
remember I remember
That boarding house forlorn,
The little window where the smell
Of hash came in the morn.
I mind the broken looking-glass,
The mattress like a rock,
The servant-girl from County Clare,
Whose face would stop a clock.

[... etc.; "The Insurance Journal," Jan. 1886]
comeback (n.): "verbal retort," 1889, from come + back (adj.). Meaning "recovery, return to former position or condition after retirement or loss" is attested from 1908, American English.
crud (n.): "nonsense, rubbish," 1940, U.S. slang; originally 1920s army and college student slang for "venereal disease." Said to be a metathesis variant of curd, which actually makes it an unconscious return to the original Middle English form of that word (see curd). As G.I. name for "disease of any and every sort" it is attested from 1945.
ethnic (adj.): late 15c. (earlier ethnical, early 15c.) "pagan, heathen," from Late Latin ethnicus, from Greek ethnikos "of or for a nation, national," by some writers (Polybius, etc.) "adopted to the genius or customs of a people, peculiar to a people," and among the grammarians "suited to the manners or language of foreigners," from ethnos "band of people living together, nation, people, tribe, caste," also used of swarms or flocks of animals, properly "people of one's own kind," from PIE *swedh-no-, suffixed form of root *s(w)e-, third person pronoun and reflexive, also forming words referring to the social group (see idiom). Earlier in English as a noun, "a heathen, pagan, one who is not a Christian or Jew" (c. 1400). In modern noun use, "member of an ethnic group," from 1945.

In Septuagint, Greek ta ethne translates Hebrew goyim, plural of goy "nation," especially of non-Israelites, hence especially "gentile nation, foreign nation not worshipping the true God" (see goy), and ethnikos is used by ecclesiastical writers in a sense of "savoring of the nature of pagans, alien to the worship of the true God," and as a noun "the pagan, the gentile." The classical sense of "peculiar to a race or nation" in English is attested from 1851, a return to the word's original meaning; that of "different cultural groups" is 1935; and that of "racial, cultural or national minority group" is American English 1945. Ethnic cleansing is attested from 1991.
Although the term 'ethnic cleansing' has come into English usage only recently, its verbal correlates in Czech, French, German, and Polish go back much further. [Jerry Z. Muller, "Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism," Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008]
firm (adj.): late 14c., ferm, "strong, steady" (of things), "permanent, enduring" (of agreements), "steadfast, steady" (of persons), "sound, well-founded" (of arguments), from Old French ferm "strong, vigorous; healthy, sound; steadfast, loyal, faithful" (12c.), from Latin firmus "strong, steadfast, enduring, stable," figuratively "constant, steadfast, trusty, faithful," from PIE root *dher- (2) "to hold, support" (cognates: Sanskrit dharmah "custom, law," Greek thronos "seat," Lithuanian dirzmas "strong," Welsh dir "hard," Breton dir "steel"). The spelling return to -i- in late 1500s was modeled on Latin. Related: Firmly; firmness.
freeze (v.): alteration of freese, friese, from Middle English fresen, from Old English freosan (intransitive) "turn to ice" (class II strong verb; past tense freas, past participle froren), from Proto-Germanic *freusan "to freeze" (cognates: Dutch vriezen, Old Norse frjosa, Old High German friosan, German frieren "to freeze," and related to Gothic frius "frost"), from Proto-Germanic *freus-, equivalent to PIE root *preus- "to freeze," also "to burn" (cognates: Sanskrit prusva, Latin pruina "hoarfrost," Welsh rhew "frost," Sanskrit prustah "burnt," Albanian prus "burning coals," Latin pruna "a live coal").

Of weather, "be cold enough to freeze," 13c. Meaning "perish from cold" is c. 1300. Transitive sense "harden into ice, congeal as if by frost" first recorded late 14c.; figurative sense late 14c., "make hard or unfeeling." Intransitive meaning "become rigid or motionless" attested by 1720. Sense of "fix at a certain level" is from 1933; of assets, "make non-transactable," from 1922. Freeze frame is from 1960, originally "a briefly Frozen Shot after the Jingle to allow ample time for Change over at the end of a T.V. 'Commercial.' " ["ABC of Film & TV," 1960].
glaciate (v.): 1620s, "to freeze;" 1861 in reference to glaciers, from Latin glaciatus, past participle of glaciare "to turn to ice," from glacies "ice" (see glacial). Related: Glaciated; glaciating.
improve (v.): late 15c., "to use to one's profit, to increase (income)," from Anglo-French emprouwer "to turn to profit" (late 13c.), from Old French en-, causative prefix, + prou "profit," from Latin prode "advantageous" (see proud). Spelling with -v- was rare before 17c. Meaning "to raise to a better quality or condition" first recorded 1610s. Phrase improve the occasion retains the etymological sense. Meaning "to turn land to profit" (by clearing it, erecting buildings, etc.) was in Anglo-French (13c.) and was retained in the American colonies.
improvement (n.): mid-15c., enprowment "management of something for profit," from Anglo-French emprowement, from emprouwer "turn to profit" (see improve). Meaning "betterment; amelioration" is from 1640s. Meaning "buildings, etc. on a piece of property" is from 1773. Related: Improvements.
inadvertence (n.): mid-15c., from Middle French inadvertance (14c.), from Scholastic Latin inadvertentia, from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + advertentia, from Latin advertere "to direct one's attention to," literally "to turn toward" (see advertise).
obverse (adj.): "turned toward the observer, frontal," 1650s, from Latin obversus "turned against, directed toward," past participle of obvertere "to turn toward or against," from ob "toward" (see ob-) + vertere "to turn" (see versus). According to OED, not in common use until the end of the 18th century. The noun, in reference to coins, medals, etc. (opposite of reverse), is attested from 1650s. Related: Obversely.
point (n.): c. 1200, "minute amount, single item in a whole; sharp end of a sword, etc.," a merger of two words, both ultimately from Latin pungere "prick, pierce, puncture" (see pungent). The Latin neuter past participle punctum was used as a noun, meaning "small hole made by pricking," subsequently extended to anything that looked like one, hence, "dot, particle," etc. This yielded Old French point "dot; smallest amount," which was borrowed in Middle English by c. 1300.

Meanwhile the Latin fem. past participle of pungere was puncta, which was used in Medieval Latin to mean "sharp tip," and became Old French pointe "point of a weapon, vanguard of an army," which also passed into English, early 14c.

The senses have merged in English, but remain distinct in French. Extended senses are from the notion of "minute, single, or separate items in an extended whole." Meaning "small mark, dot" in English is mid-14c. Meaning "distinguishing feature" is recorded from late 15c. Meaning "a unit of score in a game" is first recorded 1746. As a typeface unit (in Britain and U.S., one twelfth of a pica), it went into use in U.S. 1883. As a measure of weight for precious stones (one one-hundredth of a carat) it is recorded from 1931.

The point "the matter being discussed" is attested from late 14c.; meaning "sense, purpose, advantage" (usually in the negative, as in what's the point?) is first recorded 1903. Point of honor (1610s) translates French point d'honneur. Point of no return (1941) is originally aviators' term for the point in a flight "before which any engine failure requires an immediate turn around and return to the point of departure, and beyond which such return is no longer practical."
rebound (v.): late 14c., "to spring, leap," also "return to afflict" (early 15c.), from Old French rebondir "leap back, resound; repulse, push back," from re- "back" (see re-) + bondir "leap, bound" (see bound (v.)). Sense of "to spring back from force of impact" is recorded from late 14c. Sports use probably first in tennis; basketball sense is attested from 1914. Related: Rebounded; rebounding.
recovery (n.): mid-14c., "return to health," from Anglo-French recoverie (c. 1300), Old French recovree "remedy, cure, recovery," from past participle stem of recovrer (see recover). Meaning "a gaining possession by legal action" is from early 15c. That of "act of righting oneself after a blunder, mishap, etc." is from 1520s.
regress (v.): 1550s, "to return to a former state," from Latin regressus (see regress (n.)). Meaning "to move backward" is from 1823. The psychological sense of "to return to an earlier stage of life" is attested from 1926. Related: Regressed; regressing.
remount (v.): also re-mount, late 14c., "put on horseback again," also "return to a former state," from Old French remonter "to climb up, ascend again," from re- (see re-) + monter (see mount (v.)). From late 15c. as "to go up again," 1620s as "to raise (something) up again." Related: Remounted; remounting.
repair (v.2): "go" (to a place), c. 1300, from Old French repairer "to frequent, return (to one's country)," earlier repadrer, from Late Latin repatriare "return to one's own country" (see repatriate). Related: Repaired; repairing.
repatriate (v.): 1610s, from Late Latin repatriatus, past participle of repatriare "return to one's country" (see repatriation). Related: Repatriated; repatriating.
repatriation (n.): 1590s, from Late Latin reparationem (nominative repatriatio), noun of action from past participle stem of repatriare "return to one's own country," from Latin re- "back" (see re-) + patria "native land" (see patriot).
reset (v.): also re-set, 1650s, "place (a gem) in a new setting," from re- + set (v.). Related: Resetting. Meaning "cause a device to return to a former condition" is from 1847; intransitive sense from 1897. As a noun, from 1847.
revive (v.): early 15c., "return to consciousness; restore to health," from Middle French revivre (10c.), from Latin revivere "to live again," from re- "again" (see re-) + vivere "to live" (see vital). Meaning "bring back to notice or fashion" is from mid-15c. Related: Revived; reviving.
sports (n.): atheltic games and contests, 1590s, from sport (n.). Meaning "sports section of a newspaper" is 1913. As an adjective from 1897. Sports fan attested from 1921. Sports car attested by 1914; so called for its speed and power:
I have just returned from the south of France, passing through Lyons, where I visited the [Berliet] works with my car, and was shown the new model 25 h.p. "sports" car, and was so impressed with this that I immediately ordered one on my return to London. [letter in "The Autocar," Jan. 7, 1914]