rejoinder

rejoinder

English

Etymology

From Middle French rejoindre, with infinitive used as noun frequent in Law French.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (US): IPA^(key): /ɹɪd͡ʒˈɔɪndɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪndə(ɹ)

Noun

rejoinder (plural rejoinders)

1. (law) The defendant's answer to the replication.
2. A response that answers another response.
3. A quick response that involves disagreement or is witty, especially an answer to a question.

   Synonyms: comeback, retort

   • 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, OCLC 181801198, page ii:

     I have passed perhaps more time than any other man of my age and country in visits and assemblies, where the polite persons of both sexes distinguish themselves; and could not without much grief observe how frequently both gentlemen and ladies are at a loss for questions, answers, replies, and rejoinders.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 38, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], OCLC 365836:

     "I'm starting to-morrow. This is perhaps the last time we shall ever meet." I made an appropriate rejoinder, and he smiled wanly.

   • 2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎:

     The simplest rejoinder to all of Daenerys’ justifications is that this bloodshed could have been avoided. She was given a moment to choose, and she chose blind vengeance, the kind that eliminates any benevolence she hoped to bring to the seven kingdoms by burning it right out of the minds of anyone who saw her astride Drogon, mowing down men, women, and children with abandon.

4. (US patent law) Re-insertion, typically after allowance of a patent application, of patent claims that had been withdrawn from examination under a restriction requirement.

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *yewg-‎ (0 c, 28 e)

Translations

defendant's answer

Bulgarian: отговор на ответник (otgovor na otvetnik) French: réponse (fr) f German: Gegenerwiderung f, Duplik (de) f Occitan: replica (oc) f, respòsta f, responsa (oc) Serbo-Croatian: replika (sh) f Swedish: svaromål (sv)

reply

Bulgarian: отговор (bg) m (otgovor), възражение (bg) n (vǎzraženie) Dutch: repliek (nl) Finnish: vastaus (fi) French: réplique (fr) f German: schlagfertige Erwiderung f, schlagfertige Entgegnung f, schlagfertige Bemerkung f Occitan: respòsta f, replica (oc) f Serbo-Croatian: replika (sh) f, odgovor (sh) m Swedish: replik (sv)

Verb

rejoinder (third-person singular simple present rejoinders, present participle rejoindering, simple past and past participle rejoindered)

1. (intransitive) To issue a rejoinder.
2. (transitive) To say as a rejoinder.