Etymologically
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adore

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Pronunciation

  • /əˈdɔː/, /əˈdoɹ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aouren, also auren, and later adouren,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French aorer, also aourer and aurer, and later adourer and adorer,[5][6][3][7] partly also borrowed directly from Latin adōrō (“to plead with, pray to, worship”) according to the OED.[5] The forms with d were refashioned after the Latin.[4][7] In both languages the two kinds of form competed through the 15th century: in English adouren gradually replaced aouren, and in French the forms with d won, which Barnhart puts partly down to the learned influence of adōrēmus (“let us pray”).[3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the early 12th century, meaning to revere, venerate or worship.[8] The Latin verb meant "to speak to formally, beseech", and in Late Latin "to worship";[6][3] it is formed from ad- (“to”) and ōrō (“to speak formally, pray”),[6][9][10] which Skeat relates to ōs (“mouth”) and to oral.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To worship as a god: about 1300, in a life of Saint Katherine, where heathen gods are said to be nothing that people should aoure.[5][2] Barnhart finds the form adouren about 1375, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[3]

Semantic evolution

From about 1350 the verb was used both for showing deep reverence and for honouring someone highly, regarding a person with great respect and love.[5] Etymonline dates the sense "to honor very highly" only to the 1590s.[6] Johnson (1755) gave first "to worship with external homage" and then a popular sense of high reverence or love.[12] The weakened sense "to be very fond of" emerged by the 1880s,[6] and the OED notes that the verb is now often used simply for liking something very much.[5] Two senses were short-lived: "to adorn" (1596–1637), first in Spenser, by confusion with adorn,[5] and "to elect a pope by adoration" (1605–1869).[5] The adjective adorable followed a similar path, from "worthy of divine worship" in the early 17th century to "lovable" in the mid 17th century.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – to worship as a god.[5][2]
  • c. 1350 – to show reverence; to honour very highly, love deeply.[5]
  • c. 1375 – the form adouren, in Chaucer.[3]
  • c. 1540 – to venerate an object as a sign of worship.[5]
  • 1596 – to adorn (obsolete after 1637).[5]
  • 1605 – to elect a pope by adoration (obsolete after 1869).[5]
  • 1880s – to be very fond of.[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To love and admire someone deeply: She adored her grandfather.
  2. To worship a god or pay divine honours to.
  3. (informal) To like very much: I adore summer evenings.
  4. (Roman Catholic Church) To offer reverence to the consecrated host.

Word family

  • adorer
  • adoringly
  • unadored

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists idolize, revere and venerate as synonyms and abhor as the opposite.[14] Adore and adorn are not related, though the OED records one sense ("to adorn") that came from confusing them.[5]

References

  1. ^ 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House