It is said that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. How can we doubt that when we have homonyms like to, too, and two? Or when one word can have opposite meanings such as “cleave” or “inflammable”?
One thing we learn in elementary school is that the prefix re- means “again”. Such as redo or relearn or reboot. I’m here to challenge that.
There are several classifications of re- words.
- Exactly what we learned — it is put in front of a word to literally mean to do that root word thing again, such as the ones mentioned above and many others. Rethink that plan. Are you going to restate the problem? Don’t just regurgitate what you read. (Yes, there is a word gurgitate. I didn’t know.)
- Closely related to that are the re- words that don’t literally mean to do that thing again, because the root word isn’t a word OR because said root word means something totally different, yet these re- words do mean to return to a state of some kind. In this category, we have repeat. You don’t ‘peat’ again, but you do say the thing again. (Which is why “repeat that again” is totally incorrect, unless the person is saying it for at least the 3rd time.). Also in that category are refrain, relapse, renege, and renew. They all indicate a return to something, but it doesn’t work literally with a root word.
- Next are words with re, but there is no meaning to return of any kind. There are probably many to consider, but the ones that came to mind are refrigerate (are you friging it again?), recluse (she was only a cluse the first time), require (I will quire that of you), reward (?), and referred (I was never ferred a first time).
- And finally, there’s ones that could look like they mean again, but don’t. Someone seeks redress, but they’re not re-dressing. A speaker can be blamed for redundant (repetitive) ideas in his talk, but that doesn’t mean he should have been just dundant. (Interestingly, saying “repeat that again” is redundant).
There is certainly some crossover within the above lists, and doubtless you can come up with many more example. It isn’t a problem of misuse, really-- just makes for interesting brain fodder when you consider it. And seeing it helps us better understand some of the struggle for those working to learn English as a second language.
I will leave this here with you now, requesting that you reconsider the various ways we should recompense someone or redress a situation if we have reneged on a promise or simply regurgitated false information. I will certainly repeat myself on some of this when I revisit in another post.