auxiliary

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin auxiliārius (“helping, assisting”) or auxiliāris,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed on auxilium (“help, aid, support”) with the suffix that became -ary.^[2][7][3] The Latin noun is related to augeō (“to increase”),^[4][6][7][8] perhaps through a lost adjective *auxilis (“serving to strengthen”), according to Barnhart;^[3] Etymonline and the AHD derive the verb from the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *aug- (“to increase”),^[4][5] the root of eke and augment.^[3][7] Barnhart adds that auxiliaire (1512) may also have been borrowed or have influenced the English word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, foreign or allied troops serving a nation at war: 1601 in the OED;^[2] as an adjective, of such troops, 1603, in Philemon Holland's translation of Plutarch's Moralia.^[2][3] Etymonline gives about 1600 for both.^[4] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to the 15th century and the noun to 1567,^[7] and the Shorter Oxford and Oxford Dictionary of English to late Middle English.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "helpful, giving aid" is recorded from 1605, in Bacon,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined the word as "assistant, helping, confederate".^[11] "Subsidiary, additional" followed in the late 17th century (before 1687),^[2][9] as in auxiliary language, a language such as Esperanto used between speakers of different tongues.^[2] The grammatical sense began in 1677 for any subordinate element of language,^[2] and the noun for a verb that forms the tenses and moods of other verbs is recorded from 1762, in Sterne.^[2][4] Later senses include an organization subsidiary to a parent body, especially a women's group (1823, chiefly North American), an auxiliary device or engine (1909), and an auxiliary nurse (1939).^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1567 – the noun, in Merriam-Webster.^[7]
• 1601 – foreign or allied troops.^[2]
• 1603 – the adjective, of such troops.^[2][3]
• 1605 – helpful, giving assistance.^[2]
• 1677 – in grammar.^[2]
• 1762 – an auxiliary verb.^[2][4]
• 1823 – a subsidiary organization.^[2]
• 1909 – an auxiliary device or engine.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Giving extra help or support; supplementary: an auxiliary power supply.
2. Of a sailing vessel, having an engine as well as sails.
3. (grammar) Of a verb, used with another verb to show tense, mood or voice.

Noun

1. A person or thing that helps or supplements; an assistant.
2. (usually plural) A member of foreign or allied troops serving a nation at war.
3. (grammar) An auxiliary verb, such as be, have or will.
4. An organization that supports a parent body, such as a hospital.

Word family

• auxiliary language
• auxiliary storage
• modal auxiliary

Related words

• auction
• augment
• eke
• author

References

1. ^ a b 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 f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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.