- reduce
- late 14c., "bring back," from O.Fr. reducer (14c.), from L. reducere, from re- "back" + ducere "bring, lead" (see duke). Sense of "to lower, diminish, lessen" is from 1787. Etymological sense preserved in military reduce to ranks (1640s). Reduction is attested from late 15c.; reductionism in philosophy is recorded from 1948.