redound

redound

English

WOTD – 6 June 2010

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman redunder, Middle French redonder, and their source, Latin rēdundō, from rē + undō (“surge”), from unda (“a wave”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈdaʊnd/, /ɹəˈdaʊnd/

  • Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -aʊnd

Verb

redound (third-person singular simple present redounds, present participle redounding, simple past and past participle redounded)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To swell up (of water, waves etc.); to overflow, to surge (of bodily fluids). [14th–19th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     For every dram of hony therein found / A pound of gall doth over it redound […].

2. (intransitive) To contribute to an advantage or disadvantage for someone or something. [from 15th c.]
   • a. 1729, John Rogers, A prudent cobduct recommended and enforced

     The honour done to our religion ultimately redounds to God, the author of it.

   • 1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam Books, p. 448:

     The fact that in one case the advance redounds to private advantage and in the other, theoretically, to the public good, does not alter the core assumptions common to both.

3. (intransitive) To contribute to the honour, shame etc. of a person or organisation. [from 15th c.]
   • 2008, Peter Preston, The Observer, 2 Mar 2008:

     One thing about the 'John McCain-didn't-sleep-with-a-lobbyist' story redounds to the New York Times' credit.

4. (intransitive) To reverberate, to echo. [from 15th c.]
5. (transitive) To reflect (honour, shame etc.) to or onto someone. [from 15th c.]
6. (intransitive) To attach, come back, accrue to someone; to reflect back on or upon someone (of honour, shame etc.). [from 16th c.]

   His infamous behaviour only redounded back upon him when he was caught.

   • 2022, China Miéville, chapter 3, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, OCLC 1331706453:

     […] that is, they concede the accuracy of certain classic attacks on communism, but in ways that redound on their opponents.

7. (intransitive) To arise from or out of something. [from 16th c.]
8. (intransitive, of a wave, flood, etc.) To roll back; to be sent or driven back.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     The evil, soon driven back, redounded as a flood on those from whom it sprung.

Related terms

• redundance
• redundancy
• redundant

Translations

to result in, contribute to

Bulgarian: допринасям (bg) (doprinasjam), водя до (vodja do) Finnish: kääntyä (fi), muuttua (fi) German: zu etw. führen (de), zu etw. beitragen (de), Russian: приводи́ть к (privodítʹ k), спосо́бствовать (ru) (sposóbstvovatʹ)

to come back, accrue upon

Bulgarian: връщам се (vrǎštam se) Finnish: kääntyä vastaan, iskeä takaisin German: zurückfallen (de), einholen (de)

to arise or occur in consequence from

Finnish: johtua (fi)

Noun

redound (plural redounds)

1. A coming back, as an effect or consequence; a return.

Anagrams

• rounded, underdo