- replication (n.)
- late 14c., "action of folding back," also "legal reply (third step in the pleadings in a common-law action), rejoinder," from Anglo-French replicacioun, Old French replicacion "reply, answer," from Latin replicationem (nominative replicatio) "a reply, repetition, a folding back," from past participle stem of replicare "to repeat, reply," literally "to fold back" (see reply (v.)). Meaning "a copy, reproduction" first recorded 1690s. Sense in genetics is from 1948.
