agree

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈɡriː/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English agreen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French agreer (“to please, satisfy; receive with favour”),^[4][5] from the phrase a gré “to one's liking, favourably”,^[4][5][3] from Latin ad (“to”) and Old French gré “pleasure, will”, from Latin grātum, the neuter of grātus (“pleasing, welcome, agreeable”),^[4][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *gwere- (“to favour”).^[4][2] The American Heritage Dictionary gives a Vulgar Latin verb *aggrātāre.^[2][6] It is related to grace and grateful.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To please”: about 1374,^[7] or about 1385 in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde;^[5] Etymonline dates “to give consent, assent” to the late 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes a core idea of trying to please.^[8] The Middle English sense “to please, gratify” survives in agreeable.^[4] Of parties, “to come to terms, make a settlement”, is from the mid-15th century,^[4] and “to be of one opinion” from the late 15th century.^[4] Of things, “to coincide, correspond”, is from the 1520s.^[4] Disagree first appears in writing in the 1470s, a century after agree.^[8] Agree to differ is from 1785, and agree to disagree from 1792.^[4] Of food or climate, agree with means “to suit one's health”.^[9] In Scots it could even mean “to like a food”: “I don't agree with fresh herrings”.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – to please.^[7]
• late 14th century – to consent.^[4]
• 1425 – agreement.^[5]
• mid-15th century – to come to terms.^[4]
• 1470s – disagree.^[8]
• late 15th century – to be of one opinion.^[4]
• 1520s – of things, to coincide.^[4]
• 1785 – agree to differ.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To have the same opinion; to concur.
2. To say yes to; to consent: agreed to help.
3. To reach a decision together: agree on a price.
4. To be consistent; to correspond: the accounts agree.
5. Of food or climate, to suit one's health.
6. (grammar) To match in gender, number or person.

Word family

• agreeingly
• agreeable
• disagree
• agreement

Related words

• grace
• grateful
• gratitude
• gratis

Usage notes

Agree can describe simply a lack of conflict, as in the witnesses' accounts agree, while conform, harmonize, accord, correspond and coincide each stress a particular kind of compatibility.^[9]

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)