Word Of The Day: Respond

Each day, Cornell Football is given a word of the day to hone in on. Given to the team by Coach Terry Ursin typically during pre-practice warm-ups, the athletes are meant to take the word and apply it to the practice, their lifts, team meetings, classes, homework, and any other part of their day, both football and not. Each week, the Cornell Athletics Communications team will highlight one of the week's words by exploring where the word came from, what it means in today's day and age, what it means to the athletes, and how they are using the word in their lives.

Today's word of the day is respond.

re·spond

/r?'spänd/

verb

1. say something in reply.
   "she could not get Robert to respond to her words"
2. (of a person) act or behave in reaction to someone or something.
   "she turned her head, responding to his grin with a smile"

Respond is a word that first began as two separate words. First beginning as re, meaning again, and spondere, meaning to pledge. Latin combined the two to make respondere, directly translating to “to pledge again”. Respondere became respondre in old French around the 1300s, but respond as a verb in English did not begin showing up until the 1500s and was not widely used until the mid-1800s.

Before looking at where respond begins showing up in the English language, it is important to first understand what to pledge again could mean. As a verb, pledge means to commit by a solemn promise. So to “respond” is to commit over again to a promise of deep sincerity, reacting to a stimulus and recommitting to carrying out the vision despite adversity.

Respond first began appearing in the English language in religious texts, mainly in reference to a spoken act. The second definition, speaking more of action and less of words began appearing in the late 1600s, and in 1855, the word was used in reference to objects reacting to stimulus, specifically appearing in Harper's Magazine, a book that collected and archived several short stories and illustrations. The specific issue referenced by the Oxford Dictionary included excepts by Charles Dickens and the line is quoted “The French batteries on my left responded with equal noise and flash”. Today, respond can be used to refer to any reaction to an external stimulus, positive or negative, verbal or physical.

In its most obvious form, Cornell football looks to respond this week after dropping to Colgate in week one. In anticipation of Homecoming, the team reflects on the previous week's performance to help fuel the next week's game. Whether it's making sure homework is done earlier, watching even more film, or taking just one more rep, this week is about learning to respond.

But it goes deeper than that. To respond is not simply a one-and-done. There is no box to check that signifies the end of a response. It is a repetitive pledge that despite trials, one will continue to commit to the process, learning from each step back, growing with every two steps forward. A single task may be completed, but still yet, each week there is a new opponent, new challenges, and new opportunities awaiting. Each of these is a chance to respond.

The word of the day is respond.