Meaning

noun (mountaineering) a descent of a vertical cliff or wall made by using a doubled rope that is fixed to a higher point and wrapped around the body

verb lower oneself with a rope coiled around the body from a mountainside

originEtymology tree French re- Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *pel- Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *-né-der. Proto-Italic *pelnōder. Latin pellō Latin appellārebor. French appeler French rappelerbor. English rappel Borrowed from French rappeler (“to pull through (a rope)”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0