Etymologically
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addict

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈæd.ɪkt/, /əˈdɪkt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin addictus,[2][3][4][5] the past participle of Latin addīcere “to deliver, award, adjudge”,[6][2][3] from Latin ad- (“to”) and Latin dīcere (“to say; to adjudge”).[6][3][4] The root is the Proto-Indo-European *deik- “to show, pronounce solemnly”.[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a participial adjective, formally made over or bound to someone (1529).[7] The verb, “to devote or give oneself up to a habit or occupation”, dates from the 1530s.[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Roman law addicere meant to hand over a person or property by a judge's sentence,[3][5] and early English used the verb the same way.[7] The idea of being “made over” to something shifted to devoting oneself to a practice,[7][3] usually a bad one.[3] The noun appeared in 1909, first of morphine users,[3][2][4][7] and by the 20th century addicted had become chiefly a word for dependence on drugs, while addict was also used of an enthusiast.[4][6]

Timeline

  • 1529 – adjective, bound or devoted to another.[7]
  • 1534 – verb, to devote oneself to something.[2][4]
  • 1586 – to deliver over by a judge's sentence, now obsolete.[7]
  • 1641 – addiction.[2]
  • 1909 – noun, one addicted to a drug.[3][2][4][7]
  • 1939 – addicting, in the sense of “addictive”.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person who depends on a habit-forming substance, especially a narcotic.
  2. A keen enthusiast or devotee.

Verb

  1. To make someone dependent on a substance or activity.
  2. To give oneself over habitually or obsessively to something.

Word family

  • addictive
  • drug addict
  • addiction
  • dictate
  • diction

Usage notes

Random House lists adherent, devotee, fanatic and junkie as synonyms.[5]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press