reprieve

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /rɪˈpriv/ UK /rɪˈpriːv/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a temporary postponement of punishment or trouble

The condemned man was granted a last-minute reprieve.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a temporary postponement of... respite postponement stay pardon amnesty deferment

Opposites

punishment execution

Simplified etymology

Reprieve entered English in the early 16th century from Old French, based on Latin reprehendere, “seize” or “take back.” It originally meant to take someone back to prison. By the mid-16th century it referred to postponing or delaying a legal process, before developing the current sense of cancelling an impending punishment.

Etymology

From earlier reprive, perhaps from Anglo-Norman repris, past participle of reprendre ('to take back'), from Latin reprehendere ('to take back, hold back'), from re- ('back') + prehendere ('to grasp').

reprendre Old French reprehendere Latin prehendere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# reprieve

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /rɪˈpriv/
**IPA (UK):** /rɪˈpriːv/

## Meanings
1. a temporary postponement of punishment or trouble

## Examples
- The condemned man was granted a last-minute reprieve.

## Synonyms
- respite
- postponement
- stay
- pardon
- amnesty
- deferment

## Antonyms
- punishment
- execution

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: reprendre
- Root: reprehendere
- Root: prehendere

## Etymology
From earlier reprive, perhaps from Anglo-Norman repris, past participle of reprendre ('to take back'), from Latin reprehendere ('to take back, hold back'), from re- ('back') + prehendere ('to grasp').

## AI Etymology
Reprieve comes from earlier reprive, perhaps from Anglo-Norman repris, past participle of reprendre ('to take back'), from Latin reprehendere ('to take back, hold back'), from re- ('back') + prehendere ('to grasp'). The historical chain includes Old French reprendre, Latin reprehendere, and Latin prehendere. The quoted older senses, "to take back", "to take back, hold back", "back", and "to grasp", supply the semantic anchors for reprieve. The formation is best read as compound, participial, and borrowed: the word reprieve carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a temporary postponement of punishment or trouble". The result is a noun and verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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