rear-comb. form, partly of OF. or AF. origin, as in rear-ward, -guard, rearsupper (and hence by analogy in rear-admiral, -feast, -freight), partly ad. F. arrière-, as in rear-vassal, -vault, and partly (from c 1600) an attributive use of rear n.3 In recent use the older spelling rere- has sometimes been adopted, esp. in archaic or architectural terms (seerear-arch, -vault).