Other forms: reverberated, reverberating, reverberates
To reverberate is to keep sounding on and on around a space. The hall reverberated, reverberating drums, the news reverberated.
Reverberation is many reflections blurring together, where an echo is one distinct return — a cathedral reverberates and a cliff echoes. The figurative sense is common and means an effect spreading outwards. The Latin means to beat back.
1verbreverberateTo keep sounding on and on around a space.
“The sound of the church bells reverberated through the empty streets.”
reverberate is a sounding.
Latin reverberare means to beat back, from re- plus verberare, to lash, from verber, a whip.
Proto-Indo-European
*werbʰ-
Latin
reverberātus
English, today
reverberate
Built from
Borrowed from Latin reverberātus, perfect passive participle of reverberō (“to rebound; to reflect; to repel”) (see -ate), whence Middle French reverberer (French réverbérer) and Middle English reverberen (“to send back”)), from re- and verberō (“to beat; to lash, whip”) (from verber (“rod; lash, whip”) + -ō).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA