- redemption
- c.1340, "deliverance from sin," from L. redemptionem (nom. redemptio) "a buying back, releasing, ransoming," from redemptus, pp. of redimere "to redeem, buy back," from re- "back" + emere "to take, buy, gain, procure" (see exempt). The -d- is from the Old L. habit of using red- as the form of re- before vowels, and this is practically the sole Eng. word in which it survives. Redemptorist is from Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (founded Naples, 1732, by St. Alphonsus Liguori). In the Mercian hymns, L. redemptionem is glossed by O.E. alesnisse.