return Look up return at Dictionary.com
mid-14c., "to come back," from O.Fr. retorner "turn back, return," from re- "back" + torner "to turn" (see turn). Transitive sense is attested from early 15c. The noun is first attested late 14c., "act of coming back;" in the tennis sense, it is from 1886. Meaning "official report of election results" is attested from mid-15c. Meaning "a yield, a profit" is recorded from 1620s. Many happy returns of the day was used by Addison, 1716.