adoptive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English adoptif,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French adoptif^[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin adoptīvus (“obtained or constituted by adoption”).^[6][3][7] Old French adoptif is recorded from about 1200, in the phrase pere adoptif (“adoptive father”).^[6] The Latin adjective is formed from adoptō (“to adopt”) and the suffix -īvus, the source of -ive;^[6][3][5] the verb is from ad- (“to”) and optō (“to choose, wish”), the source of opt.^[7] The OED compares Catalan adoptiu, Spanish adoptivo and Italian adottivo.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Related by adoption, as in adoptive son: about 1429, in the Mirour of Mans Saluacioune.^[6] The MED's quotations, from Lydgate's Fall of Princes and the Mirror of Salvation, use it in son adoptif, an adopted son, and figuratively of mankind as God's adopted son.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word at first described a family relationship made by adoption, the adoptive son as well as the father.^[6][8] Johnson (1755) gave "he that is adopted by another" as its first sense, quoting Bacon on an adoptive son.^[8] From 1641, in Milton, it was used of things taken up and treated as one's own, as in an adoptive country;^[6][3] from 1880 it was also used of a person inclined to take up new things.^[6][4] In the 20th century immunology took it up for treatments that transfer immune cells from one person to another (1954).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1429 – having a family relationship by adoption.^[6]
• 1641 – taken up and treated as one's own, in Milton.^[6]
• 1880 – inclined to adopt new things.^[6]
• 1883 – relating to the process of adopting a child.^[6]
• 1954 – in immunology, involving the transfer of immune cells.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Related to someone by adoption: her adoptive mother.^[9][3][6]
2. Taken up and treated as one's own: Lisbon became his adoptive city.^[3][6]
3. Of or relating to adoption.^[9][3]
4. Inclined to adopt or take up new things.^[3][4]

Word family

• adoptively

Related words

• adopt
• adoption
• adopted
• option
• adaptive

Usage notes

Dictionary.com notes that adoptive can refer to either the parents or the child, but is customarily applied to the parent (adoptive father), and adopted to the child (adopted daughter).^[10] It also lists adoptive as easily confused with adaptive.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House