repeatrepeat

Repeat comes from Old French repeter, from Latin repetō, from re- ‘again’ + petō ‘to seek, attack’, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂eti ‘to fly’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*péth₂eti¹‘to fly’reconstructed
2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpetō¹‘to attack, beseech, seek’
3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErepetō¹‘to attack again’
4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400repeter¹‘to say multiple times’
5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600repeter²‘to repeat’
6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500repeten¹‘to repeat’
7. Englishearliest quotation a. 1687repeat¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English repeat
2. ² Wiktionary, Middle English repeten
3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: a. 1687, Edmund Waller: “He[…] repeats the danger of the burning town.”.