Etymograph

English

re

Re comes from Latin rēs ‘thing, matter, topic’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *reh₁ís ‘wealth, goods’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*reh₁ís1‘wealth’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*reis1‘thing’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErēs2‘thing’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErē2ablative of rēs
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2020re2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin res
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English re
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2020, HarryBlank, SCP-5243: “"I know it's been a long haul, but can…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*reh₁ísWiktionary, Latin res‘wealth’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*reisWiktionary, Latin res‘thing’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErēsWiktionary, English re‘thing’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErēWiktionary, English reablative of rēs
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2020reWiktionary, English re. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2020, HarryBlank, SCP-5243: “"I know it's been a long haul, but can…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with re, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Italic *reis ‘thing, matter’

  • reality ← réalité ← reālitās ← reālis ← rēs
  • realise ← réaliser ← real ← reel ← reālis
  • realisation ← réaliser ← real ← reel ← reālis

through Latin rēs ‘thing, matter, topic’

37 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of re

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-‘to sound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swonh₂éyetireconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swonaō‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonō‘make a noise, sound, resound’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEresonōas resonāre‘made to resound’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500re‘second degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales’
  7. Englishtodayre

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Today it means

prep About, regarding, with reference to; used especially in letters, documents, emails and case law.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “re”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin res. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *reh₁ís / re