echo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A sound that comes back to you after it bounces off a surface.

   They shouted into the cave and heard their voices come back as an echo.

2. 2
   noun

   Something that repeats or reminds you of an earlier thing.

   There is an echo of his father's style in everything he paints.

3. 3
   verb

   To repeat or reflect a sound so it can be heard again.

   Their footsteps echoed down the empty hallway.

4. 4
   verb

   To repeat or express the same idea or feeling as someone else.

   Many readers echoed the critic's praise for the novel.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Echo entered English in the Middle Ages from Greek ēkhō, a word related to ēkhē, “a sound.” In Greek mythology Echo was a nymph reduced to repeating the words of others, probably a personification of the existing Greek word.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ-der. Proto-Hellenic *wākʰā́ Ancient Greek ἠχή (ēkhḗ) Proto-Indo-European *-ṓy Ancient Greek -ώ (-ṓ) Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ)der. Latin ēchō Medieval Latin ēccōder. Middle English eccho English echo From Middle English eccho, ecco, ekko, from Medieval Latin ēccō, from Latin ēchō, from Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ), from ἠχή (ēkhḗ, “sound”). Possibly from the same Proto-Indo-European root as sough.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary