Other forms: reprimanded, reprimands, reprimanding
To reprimand somebody is to rebuke them formally for a fault. Not a row — a recorded telling-off.
The formality is the whole point, since a reprimand goes on a file where a scolding does not. Armies, police forces and professional bodies all use the word precisely, and a formal reprimand is a defined level of punishment. It works as a noun and a verb without changing shape, so you issue a reprimand or you reprimand somebody. A dressing-down is the informal cousin, and a caution is the version police give in the street.
A reprimand is a repression. French réprimande comes from réprimer, to repress or to hold down, so the telling-off is meant to push the behaviour back.
French
réprimande
English, today
reprimand
Built from
From French réprimande, from réprimer (“to repress”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Ways of Speaking
First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.
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