rebel [ME] The Latin word rebellis was originally used in reference to someone making a fresh declaration of war after being defeated. The root was bellum ‘war’, as in bellicose [LME] or ‘warlike’, combined with re- ‘again’. A person who is deeply dissatisfied by society in general but does not have a specific aim to fight for might be described as a rebel without a cause. The first such person was James Dean, star of the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause. Revel [LME] comes from the French equivalent, which developed the sense ‘to make a noise’ from the basic sense ‘to rise in rebellion’.