# What is a repayther?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-repayther/544120>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-repayther/544120 "2010-06-22T14:06:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MissStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MissStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissStar)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-repayther/544120/1 "2010-06-22T14:06:09Z")

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I’m reading Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. There is a textual footnote in my Barnes & Noble classics edition, for chapter XXVIII, when the word “repayther” is used. The note reads, “Personal timepiece that sounded the hour when a button was pressed.”

Search engine results for _repayther_ turn up mainly the text of Vanity Fair itself, followed by numerous hits for typos like “repay ther debts”.

The character who wears the “very large ‘repayther’ on her stomach” is a vulgar Irish woman (Thackeray abuses the Irish many times, and most notably in his novel Barry Lyndon), so I get the feeling that the repayther is probably just as vulgar or at the very least very superfluous.

So anyone know any details on a repayther? There has been at least one mention of a watch in the novel that I can remember, so whatever a repayther is, it’s different from a watch.

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**Author:** ![Dolukhanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@Dolukhanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dolukhanova)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-repayther/544120/2 "2010-06-22T14:24:46Z")

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It’s a dialect Irish pronunciation of “repeater,” which is indeed a type of watch

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**Author:** ![MissStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MissStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissStar)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-repayther/544120/3 "2010-06-22T14:30:01Z")

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Thanks very much! Thackeray’s use of dialect in his dialogue is masterfully done, but the footnote should’ve been more like your answer. Thanks again.

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-repayther/544120/4 "2010-06-22T14:31:22Z")

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I don’t know, but I’m having a rich old time picturing Flavor Flav.

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-repayther/544120/5 "2010-06-22T14:43:34Z")

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> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> I don’t know, but I’m having a rich old time picturing Flavor Flav.

That’s Flayther Flav.