audience

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈɔː.di.əns/, US /ˈɑː.di.əns/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English audience,^[2] borrowed from Old French audience,^[3][4] from Latin audientia (“a hearing, listening”),^[3][4] from audiēns, present participle of audīre (“to hear”),^[3][4] from a compound *au-dh- “to perceive physically”, from Proto-Indo-European *au- (“to perceive”).^[3] It is related to audible, audition, auditorium and audit.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of hearing, attention to what is spoken: about 1374 in the OED.^[6] Barnhart dates it probably before 1387, in a version of Piers Plowman, as an opportunity to be heard.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A formal hearing or reception, as by a sovereign, is from 1377,^[6] and the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[3] Persons within hearing, an assembly of listeners, is from the early 15th century.^[3] People once went to “hear” a play rather than see it, in keeping with the word's oldest sense.^[5] The sense was transferred to the readers of a book by 1855 and to television viewers by 1946;^[3] French audience keeps only the older senses.^[3] Audience participation is from 1938, in radio.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – hearing, attention.^[6]
• 1377 – a formal hearing.^[6]
• early 15th century – a group of listeners.^[3]
• 1514 – a formal interview with a sovereign.^[6]
• 1855 – the readers of a book.^[3]
• 1938 – audience participation.^[3]
• 1946 – television viewers.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The people gathered to watch or listen to a performance, or reached by a broadcast.
2. The readers of a book or other publication.
3. A group of admirers or followers.
4. A formal interview with a person of high rank: an audience with the Pope.
5. An opportunity to be heard.

Related words

• audition
• audible
• audio
• auditorium
• audit
• obey

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press