Etymologically
Log in

aggregate

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 12:52. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: noun, adjective /ˈæɡ.rɪ.ɡət/; verb /ˈæɡ.rɪ.ɡeɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aggregat, borrowed from Latin aggregātus (“associated, united”), the past participle of aggregō (“to add to a flock, bring together”),[2][3][4][5] from ad- (“to”) and grex (“flock, herd”) (see gregarious),[2][3][5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to gather”).[3] The noun is from aggregātum, the neuter of the participle.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Collected into one body or mass: about 1400.[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to bring together in a sum or mass, is from about 1400, probably first in Wycliffe,[2][3] and the noun, a whole made of many units, from before 1425.[2][3] The intransitive verb, to come together, is from 1855.[3] In law, a body of many individuals united in one association is aggregate from 1625,[7] in botany from 1693 and in geology, of a rock of distinct minerals such as granite, from 1795.[7] Aggregate demand in economics is from 1894.[7] The building sense, the sand and stone mixed into concrete, is now common.[8][9] Aggregation is probably from before 1425.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – collected into one body.[2][7]
  • before 1425 – an aggregate (noun).[2]
  • 1625 – aggregate (law).[7]
  • 1795 – aggregate rock (geology).[7]
  • 1855 – to come together.[3]
  • 1894 – aggregate demand.[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Forming or amounting to a whole; total.
  2. Massed into a dense cluster.
  3. (botany) Of fruits or flowers, made of a dense cluster of carpels or florets.
  4. (geology) Composed of a mixture of minerals.

Noun

  1. A total made up of separate parts; the sum total.
  2. The sand, gravel or stone mixed with cement and water to make concrete.
  3. (geology) A rock made of a mixture of minerals, such as granite.

Verb

  1. To gather into a mass, sum or whole.
  2. To amount to; to total.

Word family

  • aggregately
  • aggregation
  • aggregative
  • aggregator
  • aggregateness
  • macroaggregate
  • subaggregate
  • disaggregate

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 g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins