Etymologically
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award

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /əˈwɔːd/, US /əˈwɔːrd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English awarden (“to decide after careful consideration”),[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman awarder,[2][4][5] a variant of Old North French eswarder, Old French esguarder “to consider, decide, judge, ordain”,[2][4][5] from es- (“out, thoroughly”), from Latin ex-,[2][4][6] and warder, guarder “to watch, look after”,[2][4] a word of Germanic origin,[2][6] the source of guard and akin to ward.[4][3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate instead takes the Anglo-French prefix a- from Latin ad-.[7] The noun is Anglo-French award, from the verb.[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, to decide or determine after careful consideration: about 1386–90, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[8][4] The noun, a decision after examination, especially a judicial one, is from before 1300 in the OED,[8] and about 1390, also in Chaucer, in Barnhart.[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was first legal: a judicial decision, especially that of arbitrators.[8][6] The verb's sense “to grant or assign by judicial or deliberate decision” is from 1523,[8][4] and “to sentence” to custody from 1548.[8] The noun's sense “something awarded”, a payment or penalty fixed by a decision, is from 1596, in Spenser's Faerie Queene,[8][4] the 1590s in Etymonline.[2] A prize or honour conferred for merit is from 1854,[8] and this is now the usual sense of both noun and verb.[9][7] In the 15th century an award could also be keeping or custody.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – noun, a judicial decision.[8]
  • c. 1386 – verb, to decide.[8]
  • 1523 – verb, to grant by a decision.[8][4]
  • 1596 – noun, something awarded.[8][4]
  • 1854 – noun, a prize for merit.[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To give as deserved or merited: awarded a medal.
  2. To grant as legally due, as by a judge or arbitrator: awarded damages.

Noun

  1. Something given for merit; a prize or honour.
  2. A sum of money granted, as a grant for study or damages in law.
  3. A decision, as of a judge or arbitrators.

Word family

  • awardable
  • awarder
  • awardee
  • awardability
  • unawarded
  • misaward
  • Academy Award
  • guard
  • ward
  • reward
  • regard
  • warden

Usage notes

A separate verb award, “to guard; to ward off blows”, from a- and ward, was used from about 1534 to the mid-19th century.[8][10]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press