Insouciance

 WORD OF THE DAY

insouciance / noun / in-SOO-see-unss

Definition
1: lighthearted unconcern
2: nonchalance

Examples
"Perhaps coming home hadn't been such a great idea after all. Instead of her mother's insouciance rubbing off on Liv, she'd just sunk further into the mires of misery as she realised that the weight of the world was resting squarely on her shoulders." 
— Clare Naylor, Dog Handling, 2002

"… the idea of French style as we understand it today hasn't been built on craftsmanship. Rather, it's been built on a philosophy: one that proclaims the character, insouciance and authenticity of its wearer. A prime example of it in action? On the big screen, in Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave films."
— Faye Fearon, InsideHook, 4 Dec. 2020

Did You Know?
Don't worry; be insouciant. Perhaps your mind will rest easier if we explain that English speakers learned insouciance (as well as the adjective insouciant) from the French around the early 1800s.
The French word comes from a combination of the negative prefix in- and soucier, meaning "to trouble or disturb."
Soucier, in turn, traces to sollicitus, the Latin word for "anxious." If it seems to you that sollicitus looks a lot like some other English words you've seen, you're on to something.
That root also gave us solicit (which now means "to entreat" but which was once used to mean "to fill with concern or anxiety"), solicitude (meaning "uneasiness of mind"), and solicitous ("showing or expressing concern").

Jeopardy

 WORD OF THE DAY

jeopardy / noun / JEP-er-dee

Definition
1a: exposure to or imminence of death, loss, or injury
1b: danger
2 (law): the danger that an accused person is subjected to when on trial for a criminal offense

Examples
Rather than risk placing passengers in jeopardy, the pilot waited for the storm to pass before taking off.

"… and cornerback Richard Sherman's in jeopardy of missing the last two games with calf stiffness that has bothered him since September."
— Chris Biderman, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 23 Dec. 2020

Did You Know?
Geoffrey Chaucer employed the word jeopardy in his late 14th-century masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, but its Middle English form can make it hard to spot: it appears in the phrase "in jupartie" with a meaning very much akin to the word's meaning in the modern phrase "in jeopardy"—that is, "in danger."
The spellings of what we now render only as jeopardy were formerly myriad. The Oxford English Dictionary reports that between the late 14th and mid-17th centuries the word was spelled in a great variety of ways, among them iuperti, yoberte, iepardye, ieoberye, and jobardy.

Itinerant

 WORD OF THE DAY

itinerant / adjective / eye-TIN-uh-runt

Definition
: traveling from place to place, especially covering a circuit

Examples
"Born on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona, Cesar Chavez entered the whirlpool of itinerant labor as a child after his family lost possession of their ranch. They moved wherever the harvest took them."
— Ilan Stavans, Cesar Chavez: A Photographic Essay, 2009

"At some point Coleman became a Methodist, a denomination whose teachings were being spread by Jesse Lee and other itinerant preachers."
— The Ridgefield (Connecticut) Press, 3 Dec. 2020

Did You Know?
In Latin, iter means "way" or "journey."
That root was the parent of the Late Latin verb itinerari, meaning "to journey."
It was that verb which ultimately gave rise to the English word for traveling types: itinerant.
The linguistic grandparent, iter, also contributed to the development of other English words, including itinerary ("the route of a journey" and "the plan made for a journey") and errant ("traveling or given to traveling," as in knight-errant).

Obeisance

 WORD OF THE DAY

obeisance / noun / oh-BEE-sunss

Definition
1a: a movement of the body made in token of respect or submission
1b: bow
2a: acknowledgment of another's superiority or importance
2b: homage

Examples
"Even with the smartphone's on-purpose designed-in distraction notification architecture, our prostration at their non-human feet is the real issue. Our obeisance demotes the advanced human, and we pretend it doesn't. We don't take charge of our attention. Our little robots do. And we caress them." — Nancy Kline, The Guardian (UK), 24 Oct. 2020

"She's beloved by Gen-Z (when I interviewed a group of grade 12 girls earlier this year, they said her name with the kind of breathless obeisance typically reserved for Taylor Swift)…."
— Liz Guber, The Toronto Star, 18 Sep. 2020

Did You Know?
When it first appeared in English in the 14th century, obeisance shared the same meaning as obedience. This makes sense given that obeisance can be traced back to the Anglo-French obeir, a verb meaning "to obey" that is also an ancestor of English's obey.
The other senses of obeisance also date from the 14th century, but they have stood the test of time whereas the "obedience" sense is now obsolete.

Optimization

WORD OF THE DAY

optimization / noun / ahp-tuh-muh-ZAY-shun

Definition
1: an act, process, or methodology of making something (such as a design, system, or decision) as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible
2: the mathematical procedures (such as finding the maximum of a function) involved in this

Examples
"A writer who is unfamiliar with writing for websites and SEO (search engine optimization) would do well to learn the basic principles. These include where and how to use keywords, how to structure sentences and paragraphs, and how to link to other websites."
— SFGate.com, 9 Jan. 2021

"'Try your best to keep working on sleep optimization ... remember that optimizing sleep may not always lead to feeling different during the day, but at least it is helping with immune system support,' [Dr. Lisa Medalie] said. 'If you are at least doing your best to optimize sleep and get enough sleep, that is all you can control.'"
— Darcel Rockett, The Chicago Tribune, 28 Mar. 2020

Did You Know?
Optimization started its gradual perfection in mid-19th-century English, when it was derived from optimize, a word first used in the early part of that same century with the meaning "to make the best or most of."
In basic applications, optimization refers to the act or process of making something as good as it can be. In the 21st century, it has seen much use in technical contexts having to do with attaining the best possible functionality, as in "network optimization" and "search engine optimization" (SEO).
Like the words optimum and optimism (which refer, respectively, to the amount or degree of something that is best or most effective, and to a feeling or belief that good things will happen in the future), optimize and optimization derive from Latin optimus, meaning "best."

Modicum

 WORD OF THE DAY

modicum / noun / MAH-dih-kum

Definition
1: a small portion
2: a limited quantity

Examples
"While his narrative on the politics of the place is interesting and edifying it's the passages about his adventures by land, air and sea that really capture the wild beauty and remoteness of a region he grew to love. And he exhibits more than a modicum of derring-do. 'I have always flown pretty close to the sun,' [Aaron] Smith says."
— Phil Brown, The Courier Mail (Australia), 5 Dec. 2020

"When the Guardian ran my article on the Visual Perception and Attention Lab at Brunel University London and how it planned to investigate why some gamers invert their controls, I expected a modicum of interest among seasoned readers of the Games section."
— Keith Stuart, The Guardian (London), 8 Dec. 2020

Did You Know?
What does modicum have to do with a toilet? It just so happens that modicum shares the same Latin parent as commode, which is a synonym of toilet.
Modicum and commode ultimately derive from the Latin noun modus, which means "measure." (We borrowed the noun commode from the French, who also used the word as an adjective meaning "suitable, convenient.")
Modicum, which, logically enough, refers to a small "measure" of something, has been a part of the English language since the 15th century.
It descends from the Latin modicus ("moderate"), which is itself a descendant of modus.
Modus really measures up as a Latin root—it also gave us mode (originally a kind of musical "measure"), modal, model, modern, modify, and modulate.
More distant relatives include mete, moderate, and modest.

Exact

 WORD OF THE DAY

exact / verb / ig-ZAKT

Definition
1: to call for forcibly or urgently and obtain
2: to call for as necessary or desirable

Examples
"The choice between forgiveness and revenge is an age-old tale. Amy March burned Jo March's manuscript out of spite after her older sister wasn't sympathetic to her in Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women.' Stephen King's Carrie used her telekinetic powers to exact revenge on her high school classmates who bullied her."
— Shelby Fleig and Anna Spoerre, The Des Moines (Iowa) Register, 12 Mar. 2020

"Based on the book by writer Alex Kershaw, 'The Liberator' depicts how the Thunderbirds staggered through a withering 500-plus days of combat in less than two years, exacting a terrible toll on Axis troops while suffering nearly 10,500 casualties during the course of the war."
— David Kindy, Smithsonian, 11 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Exact derives from a form of the Latin verb exigere, meaning "to drive out, to demand, or to measure." (Another descendant of exigere is the word exigent, which can mean "demanding" or "requiring immediate attention.")
Exigere, in turn, was formed by combining the prefix ex- with the verb agere, meaning "to drive." Agere has been a prolific source of words for English speakers; it is the ancestor of agent, react, mitigate, and navigate, just to name a few.
Incidentally, if you are looking for a synonym of the verb exact, you could try demand, call for, claim, or require.

Gulosity

 WORD OF THE DAY

gulosity / noun / goo-LAH-suh-tee

Definition
1: excessive appetite
2: greediness

Examples
"After a Christmas period generally spent lying down, motionless and swollen, it was time to get back to a life of squats, lunges and sub-9,000 calorie days. Before letting go of my acquired gulosity completely, I decided to indulge in one last meal of excess."
— James Ashford, The Independent (UK), 11 Jan. 2013

"By the time I was in high school, so convinced was I of the worthiness and delectations of [the English] language that I pounced upon its literature with a ravenous appetite that, at times, alarmed my father, who thought my sociability was cast into arrears owing to my bookish gulosity."
— Ramnath Subramanian, The El Paso (Texas) Times, 9 Sep. 2004

Did You Know?
Gulosity is a rare word for "gluttony" that sees only occasional use in English these days.
It derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from the Latin adjective gulosus ("gluttonous") and ultimately from the noun gula ("gullet").
It was apparently a favorite word of famed 18th-century author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, who has been falsely credited with coining gulosity, even though evidence for the word's use dates back to the 15th century.
According to his biographer, James Boswell, Johnson was no light eater himself: he "indulged with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins of his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration was visible."

Preeminent

 WORD OF THE DAY

preeminent / adjective / pree-EM-uh-nunt

Definition
1a: exhibiting eminence especially in standing above others in some quality or position
1b: prominent
2a: standing out so as to be readily perceived or noted
2b: conspicuous
3a: jutting out
3b: projecting

Examples
"Over the course of 80 years, Chuck Norris has done it all. He served in the military before becoming one of the most universally recognized martial artists of all time, and his skills led to a successful career in films, beginning with a legendary battle against the great Bruce Lee in the iconic action movie, "Way of the Dragon", before becoming one of the preeminent action heroes of the 1980s."
— Zak Wojnar, Screen Rant, 4 Dec. 2020

"[Georgia] ranked 10th in tech employment nationally, is a hub of Black tech entrepreneurship, and is home to a cluster of a major academic centers, including Georgia Tech and Emory University, as well as Morehouse and Spelman, two preeminent HBCUs who have made significant contributions to educating underrepresented communities."
— Bhaskar Chakravorti, Harvard Business Review, 4 Dec. 2020

Did You Know?
What is noteworthy about the following sentence? "Denali Mountain is a prominent eminence on the Alaskan landscape."
You very likely recognized two words that are closely related to preeminent: prominent and eminence. All three words are rooted in the Latin verb stem -minēre, meaning "to stand out."
Mount is also a related word: it comes from Latin mont- or mons, meaning "mountain," which shares a common ancestor with -minēre.
Mount leads us in turn to paramount, a word closely related in meaning to preeminent.

Conjecture

 WORD OF THE DAY

conjecture / verb / kun-JEK-cher

Definition
1a: to arrive at or deduce by surmise or guesswork
1b: guess
2: to form a supposition or inference

Examples
Some scientists have conjectured that Jupiter's moon Europa could sustain life.

"He conjectured that the quick-sprouting barley would hold the sands through the winter and spring. This would give time for the lupine to establish itself, further stabilizing the dunes through the summer and following winter."
— Gary Kamiya, The San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
When the noun conjecture entered English in the 14th century, it referred to the act of interpreting signs or omens especially to make prognostications.
That sense is now obsolete, but by the 16th century both the noun and verb conjecture had acquired the meanings of speculation and inference that we use today.
Conjecture derives via Middle English and Middle French from the Latin verb conicere ("to throw together"), a combination of com- ("together") and jacere ("to throw").

Vulcanize

 WORD OF THE DAY

vulcanize / verb / VUL-kuh-nyze

Definition
: to treat crude or synthetic rubber or similar plastic material with chemicals to give it useful properties (such as elasticity, strength, and stability)

Examples
"In 1939 [Charles] Cornell invented a safer and more efficient way of patching holes in tires. Previously people put a piece of rubber on the tire and put heat on it as part of the vulcanization process. Cornell discovered a way to use chemicals to vulcanize the patch to the tire without heat, revolutionizing the industry, [Mike] Murray said."
— Maria DeVito, The Newark (Ohio) Advocate, 18 Mar. 2017

"The station was known for the service it provided vulcanizing tires. This type of repair involves external tire damage, such as sidewall cuts, chipped lugs, cracks in the shoulder, and bead damage."
— Scott Mall, FreightWaves.com, 20 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Vulcanize might sound like something Spock from Star Trek might do, but the explanation behind this word has more to do with ancient mythology than it does with science fiction.
Vulcanization in its simplest form consists of heating rubber with sulfur in order to improve the rubber's qualities.
The Roman god Vulcan (whose Greek counterpart is Hephaestus) was the god of fire and of skills that used fire, such as metalworking. So when Charles Goodyear discovered that high heat would result in stronger rubber, he called the process "vulcanization" after the god of fire.
Goodyear developed the idea in 1839 and acquired a patent for it in 1844.

Servile

 WORD OF THE DAY

servile / adjective / SER-vul

Definition
1: of or befitting a menial position
2a: meanly or cravenly submissive
2b: abject

Examples
"Ms. [Judith] Jamison remembers Ailey's teaching her 'Cry' in the company's original studios…. 'It took Alvin eight days to choreograph…. Our musicality was always very close. He wonderfully combined movement and emotion, so little explanation was necessary. I was to be a woman who did the most servile of work but was never defeated by it. I was a mother protecting her children. I was a queen who'd come from Africa.'"
— Valerie Gladstone, The New York Times, 26 Nov. 2000

"They, while submitting implicitly to his influence, never acknowledged, because they never reflected on, his superiority; they were quite tractable, therefore, without running the smallest danger of being servile…."
— Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, 1849

Did You Know?
Latin served us servile with the help of servilis, itself from servus, the Latin word for "slave."
Servus is also an ancestor of serve, service, and servitude.
Synonyms of servile in English include subservient, slavish, and obsequious.
Subservient implies the cringing manner of someone who is very conscious of having a subordinate position.
Slavish suggests abject or debased servitude.
Obsequious implies fawning or sycophantic compliance and exaggerated deference of manner.
Servile suggests the fawning behavior of one in forced servitude.

Baksheesh

 WORD OF THE DAY

baksheesh / noun / BAK-sheesh

Definition
: payment (such as a tip or bribe) to expedite service

Examples
"Penn noted that from 2014 until May, the state's largest utilities pumped some $57 million in campaign contributions to members of the Florida Legislature.… And just to make sure that investment in turning the state House and Senate into a buffet line of legalized baksheesh was protected, the utilities also spent $6 million on lobbying…."
— Daniel Ruth, The Tampa Bay (Florida) Times, 12 July 2019

"Guides are often well-trained Egyptologists whose function is not only to educate but also to divert the many locals who will have their hands out for baksheesh, whether they've earned it or not."
— Tim Murphy et al., Condé Nast Traveler, 26 Mar. 2015

Did You Know?
British subjects traveling abroad in the 17th century likely picked up baksheesh in Asia, where they would have heard the term used to mean "gratuity, a present of money, tip"—a meaning they directly adopted.
Etymologically speaking, baksheesh is from Persian bakhshīsh, which is also the source of the word buckshee, meaning "something extra obtained free," "extra rations," or "windfall, gratuity."
Buckshee never made it across the pond to the U.S., and is strictly used in British English.

Pedantic

WORD OF THE DAY

pedantic / adjective / pih-DAN-tik

Definition
1: of, relating to, or being a pedant
2: narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned
3: unimaginative, dull

Examples
"It is always very difficult to know how to pronounce [the name van Gogh]—it's not easy for someone English or American, we just don't have that sound. Then it sounds pedantic if you insist on the Dutch pronunciation."
— Martin Bailey, quoted on CNN, 7 Feb. 2020

"The trouble is that listening is a skill few diligently practice even in the best of times…. Family members, friends and colleagues may retreat into themselves, become easily distracted or maybe get too analytical, critical or pedantic in a subconscious attempt to control the conversation when all else is uncontrollable."
— Kate Murphy, The New York Times, 5 May 2020

Did You Know?
In William Shakespeare's day, a pedant was a male schoolteacher.
The word's meaning was close to that of the Italian pedante, from which the English word was adapted. Someone who was pedantic was simply a tutor or teacher.
But some instructional pedants of the day must have been pompous and dull because by the early 1600s both pedant and pedantic had gained extended senses referring to anyone who was obnoxiously and tediously devoted to their own academic acumen.
When describing arguments, pedantic can be used for instances where one relies too heavily on minor details as a way to show off one's intelligence.

Mimesis

 WORD OF THE DAY

mimesis / noun / muh-MEE-sis

Definition
: imitation, mimicry

Examples
"Art preserves, through mimesis, what no longer exists, offers a permanent record of impermanent reality—in this way, it can be not only a comfort but a remedy for grief."
— Jackson Arn, The Forward (New York), 13 June 2020

"You know how everyone always says that life imitates art, well the Greeks had a word for that: mimesis. Mimetic words imitate, or mimic, ideas."
— Gary Reddin, The Lawton (Oklahoma) Constitution, 20 May 2020

Did You Know?
Mimesis is a term with an undeniably classical pedigree.
Originally a Greek word, it has been used in aesthetic or artistic theory to refer to the attempt to imitate or reproduce reality since Plato and Aristotle.
Mimesis is derived from the Greek verb mimeisthai, which means "to imitate" and which itself comes from mimos, meaning "mime."
The English word mime also descends from mimos, as do mimic and mimicry. And what about mimeograph, the name of the duplicating machine that preceded the photocopier?
We can't be absolutely certain what the folks at the A. B. Dick Company had in mind when they came up with Mimeograph (a trademark name that has since expired), but influence from mimos and its descendants certainly seems probable.

Amok

 WORD OF THE DAY

amok / adverb / uh-MUK

Definition
1: in a violently raging, wild, or uncontrolled manner
2: in a murderously frenzied state

Examples
"Legitimate software can also run amok if it's not coded to play nicely with others."
— Rob Pegoraro, USA Today, 27 Nov. 2020

"Staffing in the hospital is increasingly challenging as the virus runs amok in our surrounding area."
— Kevin Sellheim, The Sleepy Eye (Minnesota) Herald-Dispatch, 19 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?|
Print evidence of amok in English was first recorded in the 1600s, when the word was used as a noun meaning "murderous frenzy."
Visitors to Southeast Asia had reported witnessing the suffering and effects of a psychiatric disorder known in Malay as amok.
Typically, the afflicted person (usually a man) attacked bystanders in a frenzy, killing everyone in sight until he collapsed or was himself killed.
By the end of the 17th century English speakers had adopted both the noun and adverb forms of amok, as well as the phrase "run amok," a translation of the Malay verb mengamok.
The adverb, in time, has mitigated its violent nature; it usually describes the actions of the unruly and not the murderous.

Devious

WORD OF THE DAY

devious / adjective / DEE-vee-us

Definition
1a: wandering, roundabout
1b: moving without a fixed course
1c: errant
2: out-of-the-way, remote
3a : deviating from a right, accepted, or common course
3b: not straightforward
3c: cunning
3d: deceptive

Examples
Our guide took us by a devious route to the center of the city.

"Monkeys? Oh, my word. Just as nasty as can be. They're like naked little people only more devious."
— Mark Hayter, The Courier (Conroe, Texas), 20 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
If you think someone devious has lost their way, you're right, etymologically speaking—the word derives from the Latin adjective devius, itself formed from the prefix de- ("from" or "away") and the noun via ("way").
When devious was first used in the 16th century, it implied a literal wandering off the way, suggesting something that meandered or had no fixed course (as in "a devious route" or "devious breezes").
Relatively quickly, however, the word came to describe someone or something that had left the right path metaphorically rather than literally, or to describe deceitful rather than straightforward behavior.

Pugilism

 WORD OF THE DAY

pugilism / noun / PYOO-juh-liz-um

Definition
1: boxing

Examples
"Floyd Mayweather says he'd be willing to come out of retirement to fight Conor McGregor again—but only for, say, 'an easy $300 million.' Which just goes to show that Floyd—in finance as well as pugilism—remains a big fan of the must-score system."
— Dwight Perry, The Seattle Times, 2 Oct. 2020

"Born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, William Neeson originally had his eyes set on pugilism, not acting. In 2014, Neeson recalled being 9 years old and attending Sunday Mass when his parish priest, Father Darragh, announced he was starting up a youth boxing club."
— Jake Rossen, Mental Floss, 18 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
The sport of boxing had its Olympic initiation more than 2,500 years ago in the 23rd Olympiad of 688 BCE.
The ancient Romans adopted the sport from the Greeks, and we adopted the word pugilism from them: the Latin word pugil means "boxer." (The word is related to the Latin pugnus, meaning "fist.")
Boxing faded out with the decline of the Roman Empire, but resurged in popularity in the 18th century. By the century's end, pugilist and pugilism were firmly entrenched in the English lexicon, and pugilism now sees additional use in reference to metaphorical sparring, as in a political debate.

Comely

 WORD OF THE DAY

comely / adjective / KUM-lee

Definition
1: pleasurably conforming to notions of good appearance, suitability, or proportion
2a: having a pleasing appearance
2b: not homely or plain

Examples
"No one looks particularly handsome or comely wearing a face mask."
— Robin Givhan, The Washington Post, 26 May 2020

"The burning bush is aflame. These low shrubs wait until most of their bigger cousins, the oaks and maples, give up their leaves before offering their own subtle but comely color as a last hurrah of autumn."
— The Wilton (Connecticut) Bulletin, 12 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Although comely is now typically used to describe the appearance of human beings, it was once used more broadly of other appealing things, such as fine clothing.
Comely can be traced back to Old English words variously meaning "glorious," "lively," or "fine."
If you are looking to pretty up your prose or poetry with additional words meaning "beautiful," English is well-supplied with them.
Aside from beautiful itself, we have lovely, handsome, pretty, fair, good-looking, gorgeous, ravishing, and even well-favored.

Apologia

 WORD OF THE DAY

apologia / noun / ap-uh-LOH-jee-uh

Definition
: a defense especially of one's opinions, position, or actions

Examples
"Susan Sontag, probably the most influential writer on the intersection of violence and photography, didn't buy this argument. With forensic prose, she cut through complacent apologias for war photography and set photojournalistic images of violence squarely in the context of viewers' voyeurism."
— Teju Cole, The New York Times Magazine, 24 May 2018

"And then there are the countless physicists and biologists who, throughout the 20th century, contributed expertise to building and improving weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps this explains why [Neil deGrasse] Tyson eventually co-wrote a book called Accessory to War, the subtitle of which—'The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military'—surely stands as an apologia for his previous blunder."
— W. Patrick McCray, The Los Angeles Review of Books, 9 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
As you might expect, apologia is a close relative of apology. Both words derive from Late Latin; apologia came to English as a direct borrowing while apology traveled through Middle French.
The Latin apologia derives from a combination of the Greek prefix apo-, meaning "away from," and the word logia, from Greek lógos, meaning "speech."
In their earliest English uses, apologia and apology meant basically the same thing: a formal defense or justification of one's actions or opinions.
Nowadays, however, the two are distinct. The modern apology generally involves an admission of wrongdoing and an expression of regret for past actions, while an apologia typically focuses on explaining, justifying, or making clear the grounds for some course of action, belief, or position.

Reprise

 WORD OF THE DAY

reprise / noun / rih-PREEZ

Definition

1a: a musical repetition:

     (i) the repetition of the exposition preceding the development

    (ii) the third section of a sonata form 

   (iii) recapitulation

1b: a repeated performance 

1c: repetition

2: a recurrence, renewal, or resumption of an action

3: a deduction or charge made yearly out of a manor or estate

Examples

"What was sweet and touching and only slightly comic in its original presentation becomes ridiculous in its reprise. It is the same song, and it is not." 

— Steve Swayne, How Sondheim Found His Sound, 2005

"Belushi, a new film…, tells us everything we might want to know about the late, great John Belushi's life and more, and yet the final minutes felt to me like a virtual reprise of Amy, the 2015 Amy Winehouse documentary, and other tales of fallen celebrity." 

— Ty Burr, The Boston Globe, 18 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?

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.