Etymology: Origin unknown. A connection with earlier regrate n.² is unlikely on semantic grounds.

Etymology: < regrate v.² Compare slightly later regret n.

Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps < re- prefix + grate v.¹ Compare later regrate v.⁴, and perhaps also earlier regrate n.²

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman regratier, Anglo-Norman and Middle French regrater (French regratter ) to buy up (commodities, especially food) in order to resell at a profit in the same or a neighbouring market (1365; compare Anglo-Norman and Middle French regrat retail (end of the 13th cent. in Old French) and the similarly early French etymons of regrater n. and regrator n.), further etymology uncertain and disputed (see below). Compare post-classical Latin regratare (1279, 15th cent. in British sources). Compare earlier regrater n., regratery n.The French verb is usually considered a compound < re- re- prefix + gratter grate v.¹, on account of the goods for resale being cleaned or polished again before selling them. In fact the sense ‘to clean (goods) before reselling them’ is also attested for the French verb, albeit later (1538) than the ‘reselling’ sense. It is thus conceivable that the verb underwent a semantic development from the sense ‘to clean (goods) before resale’ to ‘to resell (goods) at a profit’. Compare also later regrate v.⁵ An alternative suggestion, discussed in detail in J. Corominas Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (1981) at regatear, is that the medial -r- of the French verb may be secondary (resulting from later folk-etymological association with gratter ), and that the French verb may share a common etymon with somewhat similar words meaning ‘retailer’ in other Romance languages: Catalan †regater , masculine (1275), †regatera , feminine (1296), Spanish †regatero , masculine, †regatera , feminine (both second half of the 13th cent.), Portuguese regateiro , masculine (1241), regateira , feminine (1254 as †reguateira ; compare post-classical Latin regateyris (ablative plural; 1229 in a Portuguese source), which may show either the masculine or the feminine noun), Italian rigattiere , masculine (first half of the 13th cent.; also †ragattiere , †regatiere , †regattiere , †rigatiere , †rigattiere , etc.). These nouns all lack the medial -r- which is present in French, and are usually held to derive from an unattested post-classical Latin form *recaptare (see regatta n.), formed on the model of accaptare achate v. (the assumption being that a retailer is buying goods which a wholesaler has already bought from a producer or supplier, hence the retailer's purchase is a second purchase), with simplification of the medial consonant cluster -pt- to -tt- and voicing of intervocalic -c- (compare regatta n.) + the respective suffixes cognate with -er suffix². Corresponding verbs also exist in Spanish (regatear : a1480) and Italian (†rigattare , 16th cent.), but are first attested considerably later than the respective nouns; on the other hand, in Portuguese the corresponding verb regatar is attested at an early date (1269; compare post-classical Latin regatare (1241 in a Portuguese source)), and Catalan regatar (14th cent.) is not much later than the corresponding noun, so that it is possible that (as Corominas argues) the verb type in question is generally old, and that an (unattested) French parallel without the medial -r- could have existed. However, it is doubtful whether the above-mentioned Romance words prove Corominas's point that the -r- in French is secondary. It is possible that the formal similarity between the French verb and the verbs in the other Romance languages is merely coincidental; moreover, an unattested post-classical Latin form *recaptare would regularly have yielded a French form with medial -ch- rather than -g- (compare French acheter achate v.).

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman regrater, regratter to lament (c1275 or earlier; compare Old French (rare) regrater , in same sense (c1180)), variant of regreter, regretter regret v. (see discussion at that entry). Compare regrate n.²

Etymology: Probably < post-classical Latin regratiare (see regratiate v.). Compare earlier regracy v.

Etymology: < re- prefix + grate v.¹ (compare grate v.¹ 3). Compare later regrate v.⁵

Etymology: < French regratter (1675 in this sense) < re- re- prefix + gratter grate v.¹ (perhaps showing the same word as regratter regrate v.¹).