Etymologically
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build

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bɪld/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bilden, earlier bulden,[2][3] inherited from Old English byldan (“to construct a house”),[4][2][3] a verb formed from bold (“house, dwelling”), also botl,[4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *buþla-,[4][2] the source also of Old Saxon bodl and Old Norse ból (“abode”).[5][7] It is from Proto-Indo-European *bheue- (“to be, exist, grow; to dwell”),[4][2][3] and is related to Old English būan (“to dwell”), the source of bower.[2][7][8] The noun is from the verb.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Late Old English byldan: 1016.[2] The OED's first quotation, “to construct a dwelling”, is from about 1150.[9]

Semantic evolution

The verb was rare in Old English, and in Middle English it won out over the more common timbran, the source of timber.[4] The modern spelling is unexplained:[4][2] buylden is in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1395), but build did not appear before 1550, and only frequently from the late 1500s.[2] Figurative use is from the mid-15th century,[4] and of physical things other than buildings, such as a fire, ship or railway, from the late 16th century,[4] 1567 in the OED.[9] Build up is from about 1400.[9] Etymonline quotes Fenimore Cooper that in the United States everything is built.[4] The noun meant “a building” in the early 14th century, now obsolete;[4][9] “style of construction” is from the 1660s,[4] 1667 in Merriam-Webster,[7] and the build of the human body later.[6]

Timeline

  • 1016 – to construct a house.[2]
  • c. 1325 – noun, a building.[9]
  • c. 1400 – build up.[9]
  • mid-15th century – figurative use.[4]
  • 1567 – to build a ship or fire.[9]
  • 1660s – noun, style of construction.[4]
  • late 1500s – the spelling build.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To make by putting parts or materials together; to construct.
  2. To develop or establish: to build a career.
  3. To increase or develop gradually: build up.

Noun

  1. The shape and size of a person's body; physique.
  2. The style or form of construction of something.

Word family

  • buildable
  • builddown
  • builder
  • jerry-build
  • misbuild
  • outbuild
  • overbuild
  • prebuild
  • building
  • built
  • bower
  • booth
  • be

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. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press