/ˈrɛv.əl/
[verb] To enjoy something very much, or to take part in loud, lively celebrations with other people. When you revel in something, you feel great pleasure from it; when you revel with others, you party noisily and happily.
Revel traces back to a Latin word meaning 'to rebel' — wild partying and uprising were once the same idea.
The word revel arrived in English in the 14th century from Old French reveler, which meant to make merry, to celebrate noisily, or to behave in a wild and festive way. But Old French reveler itself came from Latin rebellare, meaning to make war again, to revolt, or to rebel — a word built from the prefix re-, meaning again, and bellum, meaning war. So at its deepest roots, revel and rebel are brothers, both born from the same Latin idea of rising up in noisy, disruptive opposition.
The connection between celebrating and rebelling might seem strange at first, but it makes more sense when you picture the ancient world's view of unruly, boisterous behaviour. A wild crowd feasting, dancing, and shouting was not so different, in the eyes of Roman authority, from a crowd preparing to revolt. Both involved people breaking free from social order, making loud noise together, and refusing to behave as they were told. Latin rebellare → Old French reveler → Middle English revelen: the path from warfare to festivity is really a path from one kind of disorder to another.
By the time revelen settled into Middle English in the 1300s, it had almost entirely shed its military meaning. English speakers used it to describe feasting, dancing, and the kind of extravagant celebration that noble households would stage during festivals and holy days. The noun form, revel, referred to a specific festive entertainment — often involving music, costumes, and theatrical performances. These were not quiet gatherings. Revels were designed to be spectacular, loud, and memorable, echoing the ancient sense of chaos that the word had always carried.
During the Tudor and Elizabethan periods in England, revels became so important and so elaborate that they required official management. The Master of the Revels was a powerful court official responsible for organising royal entertainments, and later for licensing and censoring all plays performed in England. Shakespeare's own company had to submit their work to this office for approval. The word revel, then, quietly threads itself through the history of English theatre and literature in a remarkable way.
Over time, the meaning of revel softened and became more personal. By the 17th and 18th centuries, writers began using it in a more inward, emotional sense — to revel in something meant not just to celebrate outwardly but to take deep, private pleasure in it. You could revel in a beautiful landscape, a piece of music, or a long-awaited triumph. This shift from noisy public festivity to quiet personal delight is one of the most interesting journeys any English word has made, travelling from the battlefield through the banquet hall and finally into the quiet spaces of individual joy.