different between comprehend vs reprehend

English

Etymology

From Middle English comprehenden, from Latin comprehendere (“to grasp”), from the prefix com- + prehendere (“to seize”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /k?mp???h?nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /k?mp???h?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

comprehend (third-person singular simple present comprehends, present participle comprehending, simple past and past participle comprehended)

1. (now rare) To include, comprise; to contain. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.1:

     And lothly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee, / That nought but gall and venim comprehended […].

   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin 2009, p. 9:

     In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.

2. To understand or grasp fully and thoroughly. [from 14th c.]

Related terms

Translations

French

Verb

comprehend

1. third-person singular present indicative of comprehendre

English

Etymology

From Latin reprehend? (“I hold back, check, blame”), from re- (“back”) + prehend? (“I hold, seize”). Confer French reprendre (“to reprove”).

Verb

reprehend (third-person singular simple present reprehends, present participle reprehending, simple past and past participle reprehended)

1. to criticize, to reprove

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:reprehend

Related terms

• apprehend
• comprehend
• reprehensible
• reprehension

Related terms

• reprise
• reprisal
• reprieve

See also

• criticize
• rebuke
• reprimand
• reprove

Further reading

• reprehend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• reprehend in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.