One Step Now Education

March 21, 2025

reverie

Sometimes similarly pronounced or spelled words can be a great prompt for an investigation. We look at homophones a good deal in this work. A recent situation made me think about the similarities between the words revelry and reverie.

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Let's see what we can discover as we attempt to untangle these two words.

Meaning

What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?

The word revelry, if I consider the entry in the Collins dictionary, means "people enjoying themselves in a noisy way" and then adds "often when drunk." Certainly this forms a glorious picture in my head that allows me to retain the word's meaning.

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The entry for reverie tells me it is a "state of imagining pleasant things." A synonym, daydreaming, comes to mind. It actually seems the exact opposite of revelry, a quite contemplation of sorts.

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Both words are abstract nouns. Abstract nouns are often more difficult for children to identify as nouns, as they have no immediate reference in the world. We can't exactly see or touch them. I also know these words are nouns, because I can pluralize them: revelries and reveries.

Structure

What are the elements that make up this word's structure?

In the word reverie, do we have the same suffix brownies and cookies? If so, that leaves us with:

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rever + ie

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If I add an revere with a meaning of "respect and admire." However, before I go too far, I will check Etymonline to see if these are indeed the elements in this word.

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Our Etymonline entry for reverie tells us the word came to English in the 1400s meaning "frolic." Hmmm...I'm beginning to think there is a relationship with revelry after all. So how did the meaning of reverie drift to where it meant something akin to daydreaming?

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It appears the root of the word is the French resver, a word with a sense of "wandering; dreaming." From there, the trail goes cold. However, the next paragraph in the entry moves us up in time to the 1600s. An entry in Etymonline will often do that. The first paragraph will take us back in time to the origins of the word. The following paragraphs will take us from the entry into English up to the present day, often documenting the phrases and idioms the word shows up in as well.

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The word was reborrowed, now taking on more of the "daydream" sense. In the 1800s the word was again used to refer to certain musical compositions. Meanings drift from their denotation in the language of origin to now, but some sense of the original always hangs around, like, well...a reverie.

Relatives

What are the word's relatives and history?

All of the words mentioned so far come up a bust when it comes to a relationship to reverie. The word rave seems to be an etymological relative, as it is variant of the French resver. The word revere comes from the Latin vereri, "stand in awe; fear; respect." Even our original source of confusion, revelry, has a base of word seems to derive from the same root that gave us rebel.

Graphemes

What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?

The Words that are adopted into another language are often adapted to match the language's orthography. Words that have been adopted later have more of a tendency to hang on to the orthography of the language of origin. Another word from French that has maintained this spelling is menagerie.

Next Steps

What can we learn next about the English orthographic system?

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Stay curious,

Brad

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P.S. My favorite thing ever is reading replies to these investigations where people share something they learned. Or better yet, something they already knew but appreciated being reminded of. Best? Stories of students the investigation triggered. So reply to this email and let me know, eh?