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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. That sense 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.
Synonyms
Examples of reprise in a Sentence
Ron Elving, NPR, 18 Jan. 2025
Related Articles Here, a reprise of the interview published on Jan. 20, 2005, that put Marchesa on WWD’s radar.
—Tonya Blazio-Licorish, WWD, 30 Dec. 2024
Keith Langston, People.com, 24 Jan. 2025
Loading your audio article SANTA CLARA — Robert Saleh is reprising his role as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator, the team announced Friday night.
—Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 24 Jan. 2025
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Dictionary Entries Near reprise
Cite this Entry
“Reprise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reprise. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
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