'Rehearsal' is literally 're-harrowing' — raking over the same ground again and again until it's right.
A practice session in preparation for a public performance; the act of rehearsing or going over something again.
From Anglo-Norman 'rehearsal,' from 'rehearser' ('to repeat, to go over again'), from Old French 'rehercier' ('to go over again, to rake over'), from 're-' ('again') and 'hercier' ('to harrow, to rake'), from 'herce' ('a harrow, a large rake'), from Latin 'hirpicem' (accusative of 'hirpex,' 'a large rake, a harrow'). A rehearsal is literally a 're-harrowing' — going over the same ground again, as a farmer rakes a field repeatedly to break up the soil. Key roots: re- (Latin
The word 'hearse' — the vehicle that carries a coffin — comes from the same Old French root. The original 'herce' was a triangular frame with candles placed over a coffin at a funeral, which resembled an inverted harrow (rake). From 'funeral frame' the word extended to the vehicle that carried the coffin. So 'rehearsal' and
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