• redound •
Pronunciation: ri-dæwnd • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: 1. To reflect, rebound, spring back. 2. To contribute, accrue, affect. 3. To abound, burgeon, be profuse (rare).
Notes: Here is a word that has been totally Anglicized; its present participle, resounding, is now used as its action noun and adjective. Redundance "superfluity" has wandered way off course. It may still be used as a countable noun meaning "result, consequence" or, even more rarely, "reverberation".
In Play: The first sense implies bouncing: "Phil Anders's conquests redounded much credit on him among his buddies, and much discredit among their wives." The second sense is almost a synonym of accrue: "Jerry Mander was surprised at the economic advantages that redounded to him in the office of mayor." I am still comfortable with the rarely used third sense: "Malcolm's speech redounded with conceptual confusions."
Word History: English came across today's Good Word in Old French redonder "overflow, abound", which French had inherited from Latin redundare "to overflow", comprising re(d)- "again, back" + undare "to roll (as do waves)", a verb based on unda "wave". Unda came from PIE wed-/wod- "water, wet" with a Fickle N. We find variants without the N in the words for "water" in Sanskrit udrah, Greek hydor, Russian voda and vodka "dear little water", German Wasser, English wet, Dutch and English water, Scotts Gaelic uisge, as in uisge beatha "whisky (water of life)", whence English whiskey, Irish uisce, and Lithuanian vanduo. We also find Armenian get "river" and Albanian det "sea". (Our respect is due Jeremy Busch, Agora manager and member of our editorial board, for pulling today's well-hydrated Good Word away from the grasp of disuse.)
