Nearby Words

again and again

[uh-gen, uh-geyn] Origin

a·gain

[uh-gen, uh-geyn]
adverb
1.
once more; another time; anew; in addition: Will you spell your name again, please?
2.
in an additional case or instance; moreover; besides; furthermore.
3.
on the other hand: It might happen, and again it might not.
4.
back; in return; in reply: to answer again.
5.
to the same place or person: to return again.
6.
again and again, with frequent repetition; often: They went over the same arguments again and again.
7.
as much again, twice as much: She earns as much again as I do.

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Again and again is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English agayn, ageyn, Old English ongegn opposite (to) = on on, in (see a-1) + gegn straight; cognate with Old High German ingagan, Old Norse igegn


By far the most common pronunciation of again, in all parts of the United States, is [uh-gen] , with the same vowel heard in yet and pep. The pronunciation [uh-geyn], rhyming with pain, occurs chiefly in the Atlantic states. Again said as [uh-gin], with the vowel of pit or sip, or with a vowel somewhere between [e] and [i], is the common pronunciation in much of the South, where [e] and [i] tend to become neutralized, or more like one another, before [m] and [n], leading to a lack of noticeable distinction between such pairs as pen and pin, ten and tin.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

again
O.E. ongean "toward, opposite, against," from on "on" + -gegn "against, toward," for a sense of "lined up facing, opposite," and "in the opposite direction, returning." For -gegn, cf. O.N. gegn "straight, direct," Dan. igen "against," O.Fris. jen, O.H.G. gegin, Ger. gegen "against, toward," Ger. entgegen
EXPAND
"against, in opposition to." In O.E., eft was the main word for "again," but this often was strengthened by ongean, which became the principal word by 13c. Norse influence is responsible for the hard -g-. Differentiated from against 16c. in southern writers, again becoming an adverb only, and against took over as prep. and conjunction, but again clung to all senses in northern and Scottish dialect.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

again and again

Repeatedly, often, as in I've told you again and again, don't turn up the heat. This idiom uses repetition for the purpose of emphasis (as does its synonym, over and over). Shakespeare used it in Othello (1:3): "I have told thee often, and I retell thee again and again." [c. 1600]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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