echo

echo

1. Alternative letter-case form of Echo of the ICAO/NATO radiotelephony alphabet.

• echoe (obsolete)
• eccho (obsolete)

From Middle English eccho, ecco, ekko, from Medieval Latin ecco, from Latin echo, from Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ), from ἠχή (ēkhḗ, “sound”). Possibly from the same Proto-Indo-European root as sough.

• enPR: ĕkʹō
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛkəʊ/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛkoʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkəʊ
• Homophone: eco (Philippines)

echo (countable and uncountable, plural echoes or echos)

1. A reflected sound that is heard again by its initial observer.

   Hypernym: reverberation

   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     The babbling echo mocks the hounds.

   • 1709 May, Alexander Pope, “Pastorals. Summer. The Second Pastoral, or Alexis.”, in Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 732:

     To you I mourn; nor to the Deaf I ſing, / The Woods ſhall anſwer, and their Echo ring.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter X, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     “Then what is your little trouble?” “My little trouble!” I felt that this sort of thing must be stopped at its source. It was only ten minutes to dressing-for-dinner time, and we could go on along these lines for hours. “Listen, old crumpet,” I said patiently. “Make up your mind whether you are my old friend Reginald Herring or an echo in the Swiss mountains. If you're simply going to repeat every word I say –”

   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

2. An utterance repeating what has just been said.
3. (poetry) A device in verse in which a line ends with a word which recalls the sound of the last word of the preceding line.
4. (figurative) Sympathetic recognition; response; answer.
   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC:

     Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them.

   • 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, Will o' the Mill:

     Many kind, and sincere speeches found an echo in his heart.

5. (computing) The displaying on the command line of the command that has just been executed.
6. (computing) An individual discussion forum using the echomail system.
   • 1992, Dial in, page 9:

     When someone asks an off-topic question […] they are usually quickly told to knock it off. You can't ask a question about modems in an echo devoted to local-area networks.

7. (international standards) Alternative letter-case form of Echo from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
8. (whist, bridge) A signal, played in the same manner as a trump signal, made by a player who holds four or more trumps (or, as played by some, exactly three trumps) and whose partner has led trumps or signalled for trumps.
9. (whist, bridge) A signal showing the number held of a plain suit when a high card in that suit is led by one's partner.
10. An antisemitic punctuation symbol or marking, ((( ))), placed around a name or phrase to indicate the person is Jewish or the entity is controlled by Jewish people.
11. (medicine, colloquial, uncountable) Clipping of echocardiography.
12. (medicine, colloquial, countable) Clipping of echocardiogram.

echo (third-person singular simple present echoes, present participle echoing, simple past and past participle echoed)

1. (intransitive) Of a sound or sound waves: to reflect off a surface and return; to reverberate or resound.
   • 1953 July, Allen Rowley, “First Impressions of American Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 493:

     With each clap of thunder echoing from one high building to another the noise was terrific.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) Of a rumour, opinion, etc.: to spread or reverberate.
   • 2004 October 29, Marco R. Della Cava, “Vaccine shortage pricks tempers”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 2A:

     The sense that it takes outrageous fortune to get inoculated echoes here in the Bay Area, where pharmacies have canceled flu-shot clinics, doctors turn away pleading patients and health officials are reduced to telling panicked callers that they should practice good personal hygiene.

3. (transitive) To reflect back (a sound).
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Those peals are echoed by the Trojan throng.

   • 1827, John Keble, The Christian Year: Christmas Day:

     The wondrous sound / Is echoed on forever.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To repeat (another’s speech, opinion, etc.).

   Sid echoed his father’s point of view.

   • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:

     ‘I want nothing.’
     ‘Nor I,’ echoed Sydney.

   • 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

   • 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43:

     His views were echoed by The Economist, which feared that the effects of modernisation would be no more than “chromium-plated” inefficiency caused by unimaginative railway management and adverse union reaction.

5. (computing, transitive) To repeat its input as input to some other device or system.
   • 1991, Martin D. Seyer, RS-232 made easy:

     The device that is to echo the characters should be optioned for echoplexing.

6. (intransitive, whist, bridge) To give the echo signal, informing one's partner about cards one holds.

• See also Thesaurus:imitate

• Choe, oche, Cheo, HCEO, CHEO

echo

1. first-person singular present indicative of echar

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛxo]

echo n

1. echo (reflected sound)

   Synonym: ozvěna

• “echo”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “echo”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.xoː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: echo

From Middle Dutch echo, from Latin ēchō, from Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ), from ἠχή (ēkhḗ, “sound”).

echo m (plural echo's, diminutive echootje n)

1. echo

   Synonym: weergalm

• echoën

• → Papiamentu: èko, echo

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

echo

1. inflection of echoën:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

echo m (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling איג׳ו)

1. work

From Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈeː.kʰoː/, [ˈeːkʰoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈe.ko/, [ˈɛːko]

ēchō f sg (genitive ēchūs); fourth declension

1. repercussion of sound, echo

   Synonym: imāgō f (pure Latin)

   • c. 62 CE, Persius, Saturae 1.99–102:^[1]

     “‘torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis,’ / et ‘raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo / Bassaris,’ et ‘lyncem Maenas flexura corymbis / euhion ingeminat, reparabilis adsonat echo!’”

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia XI.17.xxi.65:

     Inimica et echo est resultanti sono, qui pavidas alterno pulset ictu; inimica et nebula.

   • Aus., Mos. 297
   • Aus., Ep. 10.23
   • Aus., Ep. 25.68
   • Vulg., Sap. 17.18
   • Acc., Tr. 572

Fourth-declension noun (all cases except the genitive singular in -ō), singular only.

• Only the nominative singular and the accusative singular ēchō and ēchōn are attested in ancient Latin.^[1]

• “echo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• echo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Inherited from Old Polish echo.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.xɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛxɔ
• Syllabification: e‧cho
• Homophones: Echo, echo-

echo n (related adjective echowy)

1. echo (reflected sound that is heard again by its initial observer)
2. (figurative) echo (reactions to phenomena and events that occurred earlier)
3. (figurative) echo (news that spreads fast)

• echo in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• echo in Polish dictionaries at PWN

echo m (plural echos)

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of eco.

• IPA^(key): /ˈet͡ʃo/ [ˈe.t͡ʃo]
• Rhymes: -etʃo
• Syllabification: e‧cho
• Homophone: hecho

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *iectus, from Latin iactus.

echo m (plural echos)

1. (obsolete) throw

   Synonyms: tiro, lanzamiento

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

echo

1. first-person singular present indicative of echar

• “echo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28