Where does “redeem” come from?
Redeem comes from Old French redimer, from Latin redimo meaning to buy back, formed from the prefix re- and a root from Proto-Indo-European wer- meaning to turn or spend.
redeem (English): To recover ownership of something by buying it...
Definitions
- To recover ownership of something by buying it...
Ancestry of “redeem”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | redemen | To redeem or liberate; To pay compensation to... |
| 2 | Old French | redimer | — |
| 3 | Latin | redimo | I buy back, repurchase, redeem; I atone for; I... |
| 4 | Latin | red- | Primarily ante-vocalic or poetic variant of re- |
| 5 | Latin | re- | back, backwards; again; prefix added to various... |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | wret- | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | wert- | to turn, to rotate |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | wer- | to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel |