Reservation

How to spell reservation

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce reservation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reservation mean?

1. nounAn arrangement to hold a table, room, seat or service for a named person at a set time.
2. nounA private doubt or qualm that holds someone back from full agreement.
3. nounAn area of land set aside and kept for a particular group or purpose.

Reservation in a sentence

• The restaurant lost our reservation for eight o'clock.

• She signed the contract without any reservation about the terms.

• The road runs along the eastern edge of the reservation.

• He made a reservation for two nights at the hotel near the airport.

• The manager expressed serious reservation about the new schedule.

• The museum sits just outside the boundary of the reservation.

Where does reservation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb reservare, which meant 'to keep back' or 'to save up', built from re- ('back') and servare ('to keep, guard, preserve'). The same servare root sits inside everyday words like 'preserve', 'conserve' and 'observe', all sharing the idea of keeping something safe. The noun form passed through Old French as reservation before entering English in the late 1300s, at first carrying religious and legal senses of something held back or withheld. From the idea of holding something in store, English later developed the everyday sense of holding a table, room or seat for a named person, and the sense of a private mental doubt that one 'holds back' from saying. The spelling keeps the single -s- of servare, so the common trap is doubling letters that never doubled in Latin.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• serv (keep, save)
• -ation (noun of action)