arbitrate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin arbitrātus, the past participle of arbitror (“to examine, give judgment, be of an opinion”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from arbiter (“judge, umpire, mediator”),^[2][3][7] with the English suffix -ate.^[2][8] Barnhart suggests that it was borrowed under the influence of Old French arbitrer, or possibly formed in English as a back-formation from arbitration.^[8] It replaced an earlier verb arbitren (“to decide a dispute by arbitration”), recorded from 1425 in the Rolls of Parliament;^[8][9][3] the OED treats that earlier verb as coming through French.^[2] The OED tentatively explains the Latin noun as "one who goes to see", from ad- (“to”) and a verb meaning "to go",^[2] while the American Heritage Dictionary takes it to be of Phoenician origin.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give an authoritative decision, to decide: 1590, in H. Swinburne's Briefe Treatise of Testaments and Willes.^[2][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the intransitive verb to 1588,^[4] Etymonline to the 1580s,^[3] and the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 16th century.^[10][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, giving a decision with authority, was general and is now obsolete or archaic;^[2][6] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to decide; to determine" and "to judge of", quoting Shakespeare's King John.^[11] Shakespeare also used it in 1597 for settling a matter by arbitration,^[2] and it meant acting as a formal arbitrator or umpire between contending parties from 1622,^[2][6] a sense Etymonline dates to the 1610s.^[3] The participle arbitrated was used in commerce from the late 16th century for rates of exchange determined by arbitration.^[6]

Timeline

• 1590 – to give an authoritative decision, to decide (now obsolete or archaic).^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the intransitive verb to 1588.^[4]
• 1597 – to settle by, or submit to, arbitration.^[2]
• before 1616 – transitive, to decide or determine something with authority.^[2]
• 1622 – to act as a formal arbitrator, to mediate between parties.^[2]
• 1637 – to decide upon something.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To act as an arbitrator or judge in a dispute between two parties: A retired judge agreed to arbitrate between the union and the company.^[12][4][2]
2. To settle a dispute, or submit it to be settled, by arbitration: The two firms agreed to arbitrate their disagreement over the patent.^[12][2][6]
3. (archaic) To decide or determine a question with authority.^[4][2][6]

Word family

• arbitrative
• rearbitrate

Related words

• arbiter
• arbitrable
• arbitrage
• arbitrary
• arbitration
• arbitrator

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 q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins