Rev

How to spell rev

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce rev

What does rev mean?

1. verbTo increase the running speed of an engine, or to make it run faster.
2. nounA single revolution of an engine, usually counted per minute as a measure of speed.

Rev in a sentence

• verb

  He likes to rev the engine before pulling away from the lights.

• noun

  The meter climbed by one more rev each time he touched the pedal.

• verb

  The mechanic asked her to rev the motor while he listened for the rattle.

• noun

  A high rev count can wear the bearings out faster.

Where does rev come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Rev is a twentieth-century clipping of the noun 'revolution', which itself descends from the Latin verb revolvere, meaning 'to roll back' or 'to turn over', built from re- ('back, again') and volvere ('to roll, to turn'). In mechanical use a 'revolution' is one complete turn of an engine's crankshaft, and engineers spoke of an engine's speed in 'revolutions per minute'. As the motor car became common in the early 1900s, drivers and mechanics shortened 'revolutions' to the snappy 'revs', and a verb 'to rev' soon followed, meaning to make an engine turn faster. The same volvere root still turns up in everyday relatives such as 'revolve', 'evolve' and 'volume', so the single-syllable 'rev' carries a surprisingly long Latin pedigree. Because it is a clipping rather than a full borrowing, the spelling is simply the first three letters of the parent word, which keeps it easy to recall.

How the word is built

• rev (clipped form of revolution, from Latin revolvere: re- 'back, again'
• volvere 'to roll')