Rehearsed

How to spell rehearsed

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rehearsed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rehearsed mean?

1. verbPractised a performance, speech, or sequence of actions in advance in order to perform it well.

Rehearsed in a sentence

• The cast rehearsed the final scene until every cue felt natural.

• She rehearsed her interview answers in front of the mirror the night before.

Where does rehearsed come from?

Language of origin: French

This word reaches English through Old French rehercier, which meant to repeat or go over something again, and quite literally meant 'to harrow again'. The verb was built from re- (again) and hercer (to harrow, that is, to drag a rake over ploughed soil), which itself came from herce, a harrow, traced back to the Latin hirpex (a large rake or harrow). The vivid image behind it is that of dragging an implement back and forth over the same ground, so repeating words or actions to polish them felt like raking over the same patch. English took the word in during the 1300s, first in the sense of reciting or recounting something, and only later did it settle into the modern theatrical and practical sense of practising a performance beforehand. That buried 'hearse' element is the spelling trap: the silent path from a farming rake to a stage rehearsal hides an 'h' and an 'ea' that the ear never clearly signals.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• hearse (from Old French hercer: to harrow, to rake over)
• -ed (past tense)