Although it looks and sounds like a number of similar words (including rebound, resound, abound, and redundant), redound is a distinct term. It developed from Middle French redunder, which in turn came from Latin redundare, meaning "to overflow." In its earliest known English uses in the late 1300s, redound meant "to overflow" or "to abound," but those senses are now considered archaic. In current use, redound is often followed by "to," and the effect can be positive or negative: "[It] probably would have redounded strongly to my disadvantage if I had pursued to completion my resolution…," writes Joseph Heller in his 1984 tragicomic novel God Knows.