entry
render
/ˈrɛndər/Give back, depict, translate, or cause to become
From Latin re- (Back) + Latin dare (To give).
from Latin reddere (“make, give back”).
from Old French rendre "give back, present, yield" (10c.) and Medieval Latin rendere
+1 more sourcefrom Old French rendre "give back, present, yield" (10c.) and Medieval Latin rendere
+1 more sourcefrom Vulgar Latin *rendere , a variant of Latin reddere "give back, return, restore,"
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from Latin reddere (“make, give back”).
from Old French rendre "give back, present, yield" (10c.) and Medieval Latin rendere
+1 more sourcefrom Old French rendre "give back, present, yield" (10c.) and Medieval Latin rendere
+1 more sourcefrom Vulgar Latin *rendere , a variant of Latin reddere "give back, return, restore,"
+1 more sourceImagine a Roman official handing a sealed document back across a marble desk: that basic gesture is hiding inside render. Latin reddere joined re- “back” to dare “to give,” from the ancient Indo-European root *do-, the same family that produced data, donate, and tradition—words with a surprisingly generous ancestry. By the late fourteenth century, Old French rendre had crossed into English as render, meaning “give back,” “present,” or even “translate”; a translator, in effect, gave a foreign text back to the audience in a new form. The modern sense “depict” appeared in the 1590s, while the computer-graphics sense is a high-tech descendant of the same idea: software gives a virtual scene back to us as pixels. Do not confuse this history with rend, “tear apart”; their similar spelling is an English coincidence, not a shared family tree. Even rent belongs here—not because landlords tear money from tenants, but because rent was originally something “rendered,” or given over, to the owner.
The Story
Imagine a Roman official handing a sealed document back across a marble desk: that basic gesture is hiding inside render. Latin reddere joined re- “back” to dare “to give,” from the ancient Indo-European root *do-, the same family that produced data, donate, and tradition—words with a surprisingly generous ancestry. By the late fourteenth century, Old French rendre had crossed into English as render, meaning “give back,” “present,” or even “translate”; a translator, in effect, gave a foreign text back to the audience in a new form. The modern sense “depict” appeared in the 1590s, while the computer-graphics sense is a high-tech descendant of the same idea: software gives a virtual scene back to us as pixels. Do not confuse this history with rend, “tear apart”; their similar spelling is an English coincidence, not a shared family tree. Even rent belongs here—not because landlords tear money from tenants, but because rent was originally something “rendered,” or given over, to the owner.
Modern Usage
In computing, to generate and display an image from digital data or a 3D model
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary usage for software and 3D graphics rendering
Kin & Kindred
From 're-'·Back; again; in return
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'dare'·To give
Derived Terms
English words from this root