Word of the Day

: July 11, 2007

reprise

noun rih-PREEZ

What It Means

1 : a recurrence, renewal, or resumption of an action

2 a : a musical repetition

b : a repeated performance : repetition

reprise in Context

The argument was a reprise of a long-standing disagreement.

Did You Know?

When "reprise" was first adopted into English in the 15th century, it referred to a deduction or charge made yearly out of a manor or estate (and was usually used in the plural form "reprises"). It probably won't surprise you, then, to learn that "reprise" comes from an Anglo-French word meaning "seizure, repossession, or expense." Eventually, "reprise" came to refer to any action that was repeated or resumed. A later sense, borrowed from modern French, applies to specific types of repetition in musical compositions and was eventually generalized to describe any subsequent and identical performance. It's possible, for example, to have a reprise of a television program or a book.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.