Etymograph

English

renvoi

Renvoi comes from French renvoi ‘act of returning, of sending back’, from renvoyer ‘to resend, retransmit’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- ‘to pursue, be strong’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyh₁-1‘to pursue, be strong’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wih₁eh₂-1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wiā1‘road’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvia2‘road, path’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400enveier2
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentenvoyer3‘to send’
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentrenvoyer4‘to resend, retransmit’
  8. Frenchc. 1600–presentrenvoi5‘act of returning, of sending back’
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1643renvoi5

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin via
  2. 2 Wiktionary, French envoyer
  3. 3 Wiktionary, French renvoyer
  4. 4 Wiktionary, French renvoi
  5. 5 Wiktionary, English renvoi
  6. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1643, James Howell, A discourse: “Touching the first promise, to make him glorius; if…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyh₁-Wiktionary, Latin via‘to pursue, be strong’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wih₁eh₂-Wiktionary, Latin viareconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wiāWiktionary, Latin via‘road’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEviaWiktionary, French envoyer‘road, path’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400enveierWiktionary, French envoyer
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentenvoyerWiktionary, French renvoyer‘to send’
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentrenvoyerWiktionary, French renvoi‘to resend, retransmit’
  8. Frenchc. 1600–presentrenvoiWiktionary, English renvoi‘act of returning, of sending back’
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1643renvoiWiktionary, English renvoi. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1643, James Howell, A discourse: “Touching the first promise, to make him glorius; if…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- ‘to pursue, be strong’

virtual, violent, violation, inevitable, virtue, violate, vengeance, vis, virtuous, avenge, vindication, virtuoso, wer, vim, venison, virile, virility, ochre, violator, inviolable, virago, 50 more

through Latin via ‘road, path’

via, previous, obvious, trivial, voyage, convey, trivia, deviation, deviant, viaduct, trivium, obviate, 12 more

through French envoyer ‘to send’

envoy, 2 more

Today it means

noun A situation in which a court, tasked with deciding which state's law should apply to a case, decides to apply the law of the forum, based on the determination that a court from another involved state would also apply the law of the forum.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “renvoi”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin via, French envoyer, French renvoyer, French renvoi. 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 *weyh₁- / renvoi

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