Etymologically
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accurate

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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OED and Barnhart,[8][3] the 1610s in Etymonline, which gives “done with care”.[2] The general sense “careful” (1621) is obsolete.[8]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
  • 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