Word of the Day

: December 5, 2015

repair

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verb rih-PAIR

What It Means

1 : to betake oneself : go

2 : to come together : rally

repair in Context

"… so we repaired to a publick-house, took a friendly glass, and thus parted." — Peter Drake, Amiable Renegade: The Memoirs of Captain Peter Drake, 1671–1753, 1960

"… Warren repaired to the dining alcove off the kitchen … and ate dinner with Nina and the children, discussing their schoolwork and events of the day." — Kevin Starr, Embattled Dreams, 2002


Did You Know?

We are all familiar with the verb repair used as a synonym of fix. But today's word, while it is a homograph and a homophone of the more familiar repair, is a slightly older and unrelated verb. Repair, the synonym of fix, comes via Anglo-French from the Latin reparare, a combination of the re- prefix and parare ("prepare"). Repair, the synonym of go (which in English also once meant "to return"), has Anglo-French and Latin roots too, but makes its way back to the Late Latin repatriare (which means "to go home again" and is a source of the English repatriate). Repatriare combines the re- prefix with patria, the Latin word for "native country."



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