Redialled

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Dialed a telephone number once more, usually after a failed or ended attempt to reach someone
2. Made another telephone call to a number that had already been tried, often to reconnect with the same person
3. Repeated the dialing of a phone number so as to reach the same party again after an earlier call

Etymology: "Redialled" is simply the past tense of "redial", formed from the prefix "re-", meaning "again", and "dial". The dial in question is the rotating or push-button mechanism on a telephone, so "to redial" means to call the same number once more. The prefix is the familiar English "re-", attached to a verb that had already been adapted for the telephone. The base word has a more unusual past. "Dial" comes from Middle English "diall", a borrowing from Middle French "dyal", which descends from Latin "dialis", meaning "daily", from "dies", day. Early uses of "dial" meant a sundial, the device that tells the hour by the sun's shadow, so the telephone sense is a later extension of the same idea of a face marked with numbers. The chain runs from the sun's daily passage to a plate of numerals on a handset. Is there anything about "redial" itself beyond this? Its modern meaning is purely the telephone sense, and that is the whole of its story.

Synonyms: call again, ring again