appliance

Etymology

It is formed from English apply + -ance,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} and the OED compares the earlier application and applying.^[2] The verb apply is from Anglo-Norman applier (“to apply, use”),^[2] from Latin applicō (“to attach to, join, connect”), formed from ad- (“to”) and plicō (“to fold”).^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of putting something into use or practice; application: 1555, in Leonard Digges's Prognostication of Right Good Effect.^[2][5][9] Barnhart dates this first sense to 1561^[4] and Etymonline to the 1560s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the act of applying, the word soon came to mean the thing applied as a means to an end, a piece of apparatus: the OED records this from 1565,^[2][9] Barnhart from 1597^[4] and Etymonline from the 1590s.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of applying and the thing applied, quoting Shakespeare's Hamlet: "Diseases desp'rate grown, By desperate appliance are relieved".^[10] Two senses died out: the action of appealing to someone (1659–1779), and compliance or willing service, in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.^[2][9] From 1865 an appliance was also a fire engine,^[2][9] and the OED notes that the word is now often used of a utensil or a piece of electrical equipment.^[2] Word Origins observes that the sense "application" had become rare, if not obsolete, until the manufacturer Zanussi brought it back in the 1970s with its slogan "The appliance of science".^[8]

Timeline

• 1555 – the action of putting something into use; application.^[2][5]
• 1565 – a thing applied as a means to an end; a piece of apparatus.^[2][9] Barnhart dates this sense to 1597.^[4]
• before 1616 – compliance, willing service (now obsolete), in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.^[2][9]
• 1659 – the action of appealing to someone (obsolete by 1779).^[2]
• 1865 – a fire engine.^[2][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A device or machine made for a particular task, especially an electrical one used in the home, such as a toaster: They bought new kitchen appliances when they moved.^[11][12][2]
2. A dental or surgical device with a corrective or therapeutic function.^[11][5]
3. A piece of equipment fitted to a tool or machine to adapt it for a special purpose; an attachment.^[5][12]
4. A fire engine.^[13][12][2]
5. (British) The action of bringing something into use or operation; application.^[13][5][2]

Related words

• apply
• applicant
• pliant
• ply

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press