admonish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English amonesten,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} borrowed from Anglo-Norman amonester, also amonester,^[7][6][8] recorded in Anglo-Norman from the early 12th century^[9] and in Old French about 1170 as admonester.^[7] This goes back to Vulgar Latin *admonestō,^{[10][11][3][4][6][12]} an alteration of Latin admoneō (“to remind, advise, warn”),^{[7][10][3][4][11]} from ad- (“to”) and moneō (“to advise, warn”),^{[7][10][3][4]} from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[10][4] The middle syllable of that form is hard to explain:^[5][12][8] the OED and Merriam-Webster suggest the model of comestus, the past participle of comedō (“to eat up”),^[7][6] and Barnhart of obtestor (“to implore”).^[3] The OED compares Spanish amonestar, Catalan amonestar and Italian ammonestare, and a Latin form amonestō of 1158 in a Spanish source.^[7] The English ending changed because the -t of its stem was taken for a past participle ending, leaving a stem that was remodelled on abolish and other verbs in -ish.^{[3][7][13][11]} The d was restored after Latin, in the 15th century according to Ayto^[11] and the 16th according to the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To urge a person to do something, especially as a duty: before 1325, in the Statutes of the Realm,^[7] a date close to Dictionary.com's 1275–1325.^[8] Barnhart and the Middle English Dictionary begin with the Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340),^[3][2] and Etymonline with the mid-14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Middle English took over the range of the French verb, which by the end of the 13th century meant to exhort, to remind, to dissuade and to rebuke.^[7][2] The sense of giving advice or warning is in the early Wycliffite Bible (about 1384), and of advising a person by way of correction in Chaucer's translation of Boethius (about 1400).^[7] Johnson (1755) still leaned to the gentle side, with "to warn of a fault; to reprove gently".^[14] The dictionaries now differ in degree: Merriam-Webster stresses gentle and earnest warning,^[6] Collins firm but not harsh reproof,^[15] and the OED says that the word now usually means a firm reprimand.^[7] The sense "to remind, to inform" (1489) is now archaic,^[7][16] and using the verb to introduce direct speech dates only from 1861.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1325 – to urge a person to do something as a duty.^[7] Barnhart's first date for amonesten is 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.^[3]
• c. 1384 – intransitive, to give advice or warning, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[7]
• c. 1400 – to advise or warn a person by way of correction, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[7]
• c. 1405 – to recommend a course of action, in Chaucer's Melibeus.^[7]
• 1489 – to remind or inform, in Caxton.^[7]
• 1541 – to reprimand a person for a fault, in Elyot.^[7]
• 1546 – to warn of danger or future error, in Bale.^[7]
• 1861 – with direct speech as object, to say as a warning or rebuke.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reprove someone firmly but not harshly: The judge admonished the witness for interrupting.^[15][7][6]
2. To urge or advise someone to do or not to do something, especially as a duty.^[15][6][7]
3. To warn someone of danger or error.^[16][7][15]
4. To say something as a warning or rebuke: “Keep your voice down,” she admonished.^[7]
5. (archaic) To remind or inform someone.^[16][7]

Word family

• admonisher
• admonishingly
• admonishment
• unadmonished
• preadmonish

Related words

• admonition
• admonitory
• monitor
• premonition
• monition
• summon
• mind

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press