respond: [16] Respond comes from Latin respondēre ‘promise in return’, a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘back’ and spondēre ‘promise’ (source of English sponsor, spouse, etc). The notion of ‘obligation’ survives in the derivative responsible [16]. The Italian descendant of respondēre is rispondere, whose feminine past participle risposta has given English riposte [18] (originally a fencing term). => sponsor, spouse[respond etymology, respond origin, 英语词源]