Redialed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Dialed a telephone number once more, usually to reach the same person or place after an earlier attempt failed
2. Made another call by entering the same telephone number again, often after a busy signal or no answer
3. Placed a repeat telephone call to a number that had already been tried, typically to connect with someone

Etymology: "Redialed" is simply the past tense of "redial," which is formed from "re-" meaning "again" and "dial," the familiar verb for operating a telephone's number keys. The telephone-dialling sense is the newer one: "dial" comes from the Latin "diālis," a word for something belonging to the day, which the source traces through Old French, Middle French and Middle English before the noun for a clock or watch face took on its later use for a telephone. So the word is a modern compound built on a very old root. The "re-" prefix arrived in English through Old French from Latin, where it had the same sense of repetition, and "redial" combines it with "dial" to describe pressing the same number again. The verb form "redialed" follows the usual pattern for regular English verbs, adding "-ed" to mark the past.