Etymologically
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audience

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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.
  • 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