Respounden

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic plural past form meaning that people answered or made a reply to something said or asked
2. Used in older English to describe those who gave an answer or reply to a question, speech, or challenge
3. Past tense of an obsolete verb meaning to reply, as in the way speakers once answered one another

Etymology: "Respounden" is a Middle English form, the plural past tense of "respounen," meaning "answered" or "replied." Its base verb, the ancestor of modern "respond," came into English from Old French "respondre," which descended from Latin "respondere." The Latin verb combines "re-," meaning back, with "spondere," to pledge or promise. A response was thus originally a promise given in return. The same root gives English "spouse," through the Latin past participle "sponsus," a person pledged in marriage, so a word for answering shares ancestry with a word for a marriage partner.