Redialling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Dialing a telephone number once more, usually after a call failed, was busy, or went unanswered
2. Making another call to the same phone number a second or subsequent time in an attempt to connect
3. Pressing the keys to ring a number again, often by using the redial function on a handset or device

Etymology: Redialling is simply the present participle of "redial", which is formed from "re-" meaning again, plus "dial". The verb itself is a plain English compound from the 20th century, when telephones were fitted with rotary dials that a caller turned once per digit. To redial meant to turn the dial again to reach the same number, and the sense soon extended to pressing the button or key that repeats the last call. The "dial" half has a more surprising past. It traces back through Middle English "diall", borrowed from Middle French "dyal", and ultimately from Medieval Latin "diālis", meaning daily, from Latin "diēs", day. The original sense was a sundial, a device that told the time by the daily motion of the sun, and the word only later came to mean the face of a clock and then the numbered disc of a telephone.

Synonyms: call back, ring back, dial again