English
define
Define comes from Old French definer ‘to finish’, and goes back to Latin dēfīniō ‘limit, settle, define’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēfīniō‘limit, settle, define’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400definer‘to finish’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500definen
- Englishearliest quotation 1596define
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēfīniō‘limit, settle, define’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400definer‘to finish’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500definen
- Englishearliest quotation 1596define
Earliest quotation: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book IV, Canto III: “These warlike Champions, all in armour shine, / Assembled…”
A compound of dē + fīniō ‘set a limit, bound, end’
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- ‘to stick, set up’
Latin *fignis
Latin fīnis ‘boundary, limit’
Latin fīniō ‘set a limit, bound, end’
Every English word from Latin dēfīniō
Today it means
verb To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin dēfīniō / define