attend

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈtend/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English attenden, atenden,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French atendre (“to expect, wait for, pay attention”) (12th century, modern attendre “to wait for”),^[4][2][5] and directly from Latin attendere (“to give heed to”),^[4][2] literally “to stretch toward”, especially in attendere animum “to stretch the mind toward”,^[2][4] from ad “to” and tendere “to stretch”,^[4][2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[4] It is related to tend, attention and attentive.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be subject to, a sense now obsolete: about 1300 in Etymonline.^[4] To direct one's mind, pay attention: before 1300 in the OED,^[7] before 1325 in Barnhart, in Cursor Mundi,^[2] the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

To take care of or wait upon is from the mid-14th century,^[4][5] to pay attention from the early 15th century,^[4] and to accompany and serve someone, and to be present, from the mid-15th century.^[4] To be present at a meeting or event, now a main sense, is from the 17th century,^[5] and to follow as a consequence from the 1610s.^[4] The sense “to wait for, expect”, as in French, was used in English but is obsolete.^[5] Attendance is from about 1380, in Chaucer's Boethius,^[2] and attendant from before 1422.^[2]

Timeline

• a. 1300 – to pay attention.^[7]
• mid-14th century – to take care of.^[4]
• c. 1380 – attendance.^[2]
• mid-15th century – to accompany; to be present.^[4]
• 1610s – to follow as a result.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To be present at: attend a meeting.
2. To go regularly to a school or church.
3. To take care of or look after: doctors attending the wounded.
4. To accompany as a servant or companion.
5. To accompany as a result: the risks that attend surgery.
6. attend to: to apply oneself to or deal with; to pay attention to.

Word family

• attender
• attendingly
• attendee
• attending
• tend

Related words

• attendance
• attendant
• attention
• attentive

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 j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e 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 Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press