Reechoing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Producing a sound again by bouncing it back from surfaces such as walls or mountains
2. Emitting a repeated sound as it is reflected or resounded in an environment
3. The action of a sound being reflected to produce multiple repetitions or reverberations

Etymology: "Reechoing" is the present participle of "reecho", a verb formed in English by adding the prefix "re-" (meaning "back" or "again") to "echo". The root is ancient: Ancient Greek "ēkhḗ" meant "sound" or "noise", and it gave the goddess-name "Ēkhṓ", the nymph in Greek myth who could only repeat the last words spoken to her. That nymph's name passed into Latin as "ēcho", reached Middle English as "ecche" and then "eche", and in the form "echo" it has been used in English for centuries. The prefix "re-" is far more productive than the base word, and "reecho" is a straightforward compound: "re-" added to "echo" gives the sense of a sound coming back, sounding again in return. The participle form describes a sound in the act of bouncing back off a surface, such as a valley wall or a cathedral vault, and continuing to resound.

Synonyms: resounding, reverberating