replication (n.)

late 14c., "action of folding back," also "legal reply (third step in the pleadings in a common-law action), rejoinder," from Anglo-French replicacioun, Old French replicacion "reply, answer," from Latin replicationem (nominative replicatio) "a reply, repetition, a folding back," from past participle stem of replicare "to repeat, reply," literally "to fold back," from re- "back, again" (see re-) + plicare "to fold" (from PIE root *plek- "to plait"). Meaning "a copy, reproduction" first recorded 1690s. Sense in genetics is from 1948.