redress

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English[edit]

WOTD – 30 January 2017

Etymology 1[edit]

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution engraved on the facade of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. In part, it reads: "Congress shall make no law […] abridging […] the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

From Middle English redressen, from Anglo-Norman radresser, redrescer, redrescier and Middle French redresser (“to stand (someone or something) up; to stand up again; to rebuild, to repair something damaged, to rectify, to restore; to obtain redress; to cure; (of hair) to stand on end; to revise a judgment”) (modern French redresser), from Old French redrecier (“to stand (someone or something) up; to stand up again”), from Old French re- (“prefix meaning ‘again, once more’”) (from Latin re-, from Proto-Italic *wre (“again”); further etymology uncertain) + Old French drechier, drecier, dresser (“to dress; to stand up”) (from Vulgar Latin *drēctiāre, a contracted form of *dirēctiāre, from Latin dīrectus (“straight”)).

Compare Catalan redreçar, Spanish redreçar (obsolete), Italian redreçare, redrezare, redricciare, ridirizzare (all obsolete), ridrizzare, Late Latin redressare (“to repair; to set right”), Old Occitan redreisar, redresar.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

redress (third-person singular simple present redresses, present participle redressing, simple past and past participle redressed)

  1. To put in order again; to set right; to revise.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker under Creed Church neer Aldgate; And by Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Bishopsgate-street; and Matthias Walker, under St. Dunstons Church in Fleet-street, OCLC 767532218, book IX; republished as John Milton; Elijah Fenton; Samuel Johnson, Paradise Lost, by John Milton. To which are Prefixed, the Life of the Author, by Elijah Fenton; and a Criticism on the Poem, by Dr. Johnson, London: Printed for John Bumpus, Holborn-Bars, 1821, OCLC 563126389, page 256:
      Let us divide our labours; thou, where choice / Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind / The woodbine round this arbour, or direct / The clasping ivy where to climb; while I, / In yonder spring of roses intermixed / With myrtle, find what to redress till noon: […]
    • 1796 May 10, Alexander Hamilton, letter to George Washington; quoted in George Washington; Jared Sparks, compiler, “Washington's Farewell Address [Appendix, No. III]”, in The Writings of George Washington; being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations, volume XII (Part Fifth; Comprising Speeches and Messages to Congress, Proclamations, and Addresses), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers' Company; John B. Russell; Cambridge, Mass.: Folsom, Wells, and Thurston, 1837, OCLC 29437768, page 391:
      Sir; When last in Philadelphia, you mentioned to me your wish that I should re-dress a certain paper, which you had prepared. As it is important, that a thing of this kind should be done with great care, and much at leisure, touched and retouched, I submit a wish, that, as soon as you have given it the body you mean it to have, it may be sent to me.
  2. To set right (a wrong); to repair, (an injury or damage); to make amends for; to remedy; to relieve from.
  3. To make amends or compensation to; to relieve of anything unjust or oppressive; to bestow relief upon.
    • 1806, John Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite; or, The Knight's Tale. From [Geoffrey] Chaucer.”, in Thomas Park, editor, Fables from Bocaccio and Chaucer: [...] In Two Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions: [...] (The Works of the British Poets: Including Translations from the Greek and Roman Authors), volume I, London: Printed at the Stanhope Press, by Charles Whittingham, Union Buildings, Leather Lane; for John Sharpe, opposite York-House, Piccadilly, →OCLC, book I, page 25:
      Nor envy we / Thy great reknown, nor grudge thy victory; / 'Tis thine, O king! the afflicted to redress, / And fame has fill'd the world with thy success: […]
    • 1812, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a Romaunt: And Other Poems, 4th edition, London: Printed by T[homas] Davison, Whitefriars, for John Murray, Fleet-Street; Edinburgh: William Blackwood, and J. Ballantyne and Co.; Dublin: J. Cumming, →OCLC, canto II, stanza LXXV, page 102:
      Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not / Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? / By their right arms the conquest must be wrought? / Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? no!
    • 1847, Augustin Thierry; William Hazlitt, transl., “The Anglo-Normans and the English by Race”, in History of the Conquest of England by the Normans: Its Causes, and Its Consequences, in England, Scotland, Ireland, and on the Continent [...] Translated from the 7th Paris edition by William Hazlitt, [...], volume II, London: D. Bogue, OCLC 458279441; reprinted Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, →ISBN, pages=357–358, footnote:
      [Magna Charta] [I]f we, our justiciary, our bailiffs, or any of our officers, shall in any circumstance fail in the performance of them, towards any person, or shall break through any of these articles of peace and security, and the offence be notified to four barons chosen out of the five-and-twenty before mentioned, the said four barons shall repair to us, or our justiciary, if we are out of the realm, and laying open the grievance, shall petition to have it redressed without delay: and if it be not redressed by us, or if we should chance to be out of the realm, if it should not be redressed by our justiciary, within forty days, […] the said five-and-twenty barons, together with the community of the whole kingdom, shall distrain and distress us all the ways possible, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, and in other manner they can, till the grievance is redressed according to their pleasure; […]
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To put upright again; to restore.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

redress (countable and uncountable, plural redresses)

  1. The act of redressing; a making right; amendment; correction; reformation.
  2. A setting right, as of injury, oppression, or wrong, such as the redress of grievances; hence, indemnification; relief; remedy; reparation.
    • 1791 December 15 (adoption), First Amendment of the United States Constitution:
      Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 181:
      "Good heavens!" cried Elizabeth; "but how could that be?—How could his will be disregarded?—Why did you not seek legal redress?"
    • 1816?, Noah Worcester, A Solemn Review of War (no. XXXVI), Boston, Mass.: American Peace Society, →OCLC, page 3:
      It will be pleaded, thirdly, that no substitute for war can be devised, which will insure to a nature a redress of wrongs.—But is it common for a nation to obtain a redress of wrongs by war? As to redress, do not the wars of nations resemble boxing at a tavern, when both the combatants receive a terrible bruising, then drink together, and make peace, each, however, bearing for a long time the marks of his folly and madness? A redress of wrongs by war is so uncommon, that unless revenge is redress, and multiplied injuries satisfaction, we should suppose that none but madmen would run the hazard.
    • 2011, The Law Commission, The Scottish Law Commission, “The Structure of this Consultation Paper”, in Consumer Redress for Misleading and Aggressive Practices: A Joint Consultation Paper (Law Commission Consultation Paper; no. 199; Scottish Law Commission Discussion Paper; no. 149)‎[1], London: The Stationery Office on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, →ISBN, archived from the original on 4 October 2015, page 24, paragraph 1.25(1):
      Although the main sanction is a criminal prosecution, there is also the possibility of consumer redress, either through compensation orders or the new civil sanction pilots.
    • 2013, Stephanie Wolfe, “Redress and Reparation Movements (RRMs) Following the United States Internments”, in The Politics of Reparations and Apologies (Springer Series in Transitional Justice; 7), New York, N.Y.: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 210:
      The offering of redress and reparations to Japanese Americans was a significant step in the proliferation of a redress and reparation norm. As previously stated, redress had previously been focused on transitional justice, providing criminal, legislative, and reparatory justice following a shift from an authoritarian regime to a democratic regime. Providing redress and reparation to a victimized group in a country that did not undergo a regime change, and in fact was a major world power, created a tipping point for reparation politics.
  3. A possibility to set right, or a possibility to seek a remedy, for instance in court
  4. One who, or that which, gives relief; a redresser.
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

re- +‎ dress.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

redress (third-person singular simple present redresses, present participle redressing, simple past and past participle redressed)

  1. To dress again.
    • 1963, Albert J[ay] Solnit, Sally A. Provence, editors, Modern Perspectives in Child Development: In Honor of Milton J. E. Senn, New York, N.Y.: International Universities Press, →OCLC, page 588:
      The teacher first undressed and redressed the doll for the child, then showed her how to pull the snaps apart. No other activity interested the little girl, and after repeated demonstrations she was still trying unsuccessfully to undress the doll.
    • 2009, W[illiam] Brian Rowe, “Grinding Wheel Dressing”, in Principles of Modern Grinding Technology, Oxford, Burlington, Mass.: William Andrew, Elsevier, →ISBN, pages 71–72:
      The position of the grinding wheel surface relative to the machine axis positions continually changes due to grinding wheel wear, thermal expansion of the machine tool, and thermal expansion or contraction of the grinding wheel. […] The effect of this variability is that the wheel position stored in the CNC [computer numerical control] is inaccurate by the time it is necessary to re-dress the grinding wheel. To overcome this problem, the machine user often specifies a large dressing in-feed to guarantee that the dressing tool will dress the grinding wheel.
    • 2009, John C. Barber, The Joy of Medical Practice: Forty Years of Interesting Patients, page 22:
      I talked with her mother whenever she was in the room while I redressed the wound.
  2. (film) To redecorate a previously existing film set so that it can double for another set.
    • 1989, American Cinematographer, volume 70, Hollywood, Calif.: ASC Holding Corp., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 90:
      Meanwhile the actors rearranged themselves into a different blocking, as the prop department redressed the set.
    • 2004, Michael P. DiPaolo, “How to be a Guerrilla Filmmaker”, in The Six Day Horror Movie: A No-Nonsense Guide to No-Budget Filmmaking, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 120:
      [Val] Lewton would redress standing sets, turning a church into an insane asylum or the staircase for Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons into the staircase for the young girl's apartment in Cat People. […] [Y]ou should be thinking about trying to reuse every location you have as another location, either by using another room or another angle or re-dressing what's already there.

Noun[edit]

redress (plural redresses)

  1. (film) The redecoration of a previously existing film set so that it can double for another set.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Yola[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English redresse, from Old French redresse.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

redress

  1. redress
    • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 1, page 102:
      To fho shall ich maake mee redress?
      To whom shall I make my redress?

References[edit]

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 102
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