English
utility
Utility comes from Old French utilite ‘usefulness’, and goes back to Latin uti ‘to use’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEuti‘to use’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEūtilitās‘usefulness, utility’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400utilite‘usefulness’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘utility, usefulness’
- Englishearliest quotation 1817utility
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEuti‘to use’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEūtilitās‘usefulness, utility’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400utilite‘usefulness’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘utility, usefulness’
- Englishearliest quotation 1817utility
Earliest quotation: 1817, Jane Austen, III: “The profession has its utility, but I should be…”
Equivalent to utile + -ity
Proto-Italic *oitōr ‘to use, employ’
Latin ūtor ‘use’
Latin ūtilis ‘useful, serviceable, beneficial, profitable,…’
Old French utele
Middle French utile ‘useful’
English utile
Linked words
through Latin uti ‘to use’
Today it means
noun The state or condition of being useful; usefulness.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin uti / utility