PRESENT YOURSELVES

The word rendezvous​ was first used in 1556, when it was spelled ranndevouse. Other orthographic variations since then have included rende vow, rendeuous, randevous, rende vous, rendevowes, rendevous, randivouze, and rendevou; the modern form was standardized in the mid-seventeeth century. The term was borrowed from the Middle French phrase rendez vous, which meant "present yourselves". The first word there, rendez, is a conjugation of an Old French word that could also mean "yield" and is the etymon of render, rendition, and surrender. It comes from Latin reddere, meaning "to give back", and that in turn may eventually be traced to Proto-Indo-European roots meaning "to turn" and "to give". Vous, through Latin vos, derives from Proto-Indo-European wos​, also "you".