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 (Southern England)

    (file)

• 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:

     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, page 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.]
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “Several Contrivances of the Author to Please the King and Queen. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 259:

     I did not omit even our Sports and Paſtimes, or any other Particular which I thought might redound to the Honour of my Country.

   • 2008 March 2, Peter Preston, The Observer:

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

   • 2019, Αντώνιος Καλδέλλης [Anthony Kaldellis], Byzantium Unbound (Past Imperfect), Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, →ISBN, chapter 4: “Byzantium Was Not Medieval”, pages 87–88:

     Runciman viewed many of the Crusades’ protagonists with sympathy, but he thought that the movement as a whole was destructive and did not redound to the honour of the faith.

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:

     […] 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; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     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