Etymology

reciprocate

re·ci·pro·cate
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Today it means: To exchange two things, with both parties giving one thing and taking another thing. Full definition →

Latin recīprocātus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromrecīprocātus
  2. English todayreciprocate

From Latin recīprocātus, perfect passive participle of recīprocō (“to move back and forth”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from reciprocus (“back an forth, reciprocal, alternating”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), itself possibly from a phrase such as reque proque (“back and forth”), from re- (“back”), prō (“forwards”) and -que (“and”). See also reciprocal. Compare French réciproquer.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.