accurate

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈæk.jə.rət/, US /ˈæk.jɚ.ət/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin accūrātus (“prepared with care, exact”),^[2][3][4] past participle of accūrāre “to take care of, do carefully”,^[2][3] from ad- “to” and cūrāre “to take care of”,^[2][3][5] from cūra “care”, the source of cure.^[6][3] It is related to curate.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of things and persons, exact and correct as the result of care: 1612 in the OED and Barnhart,^[8][3] the 1610s in Etymonline, which gives “done with care”.^[2] The general sense “careful” (1621) is obsolete.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word was used only of things, but English extended it to persons.^[8] The notion of doing something carefully led to that of being precise, without reference to care, by the 1650s (1651 in the OED).^[2][8] Etymonline calls it a stronger word than correct and weaker than exact.^[2] Accuracy is from 1662.^[3]

Timeline

• 1612 – exact as a result of care.^[8][3]
• 1621 – careful (obsolete).^[8]
• 1651 – exact, precise.^[8]
• 1662 – accuracy.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Free from error, conforming exactly to fact.
2. Within acceptable limits of a standard; precise.
3. Able to give a correct reading or result, or to hit a target: an accurate scale, an accurate throw.

Word family

• accurately
• accurateness
• accurize
• hyperaccurate
• superaccurate
• unaccurate
• accuracy

Related words

• cure
• curate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press