career

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /kəˈrɪə/, US /kəˈrɪr/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French carrière (“racecourse, road”),^[2][3][4] from Old Provençal carriera (“street, road for vehicles”)^[2][5][6] or Italian carriera,^[2][7][8] from Medieval Latin carrāria, short for via carrāria “road for carts”,^[3][4][9] from Latin carrus (“a wheeled vehicle, wagon”),^[2][4] a Gaulish type of wagon,^[4] the source of car.^[2][3] The verb is from the noun.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A running, usually at full speed; a course: about 1534^[10][3] or the 1530s, especially of the sun across the sky.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins says the core idea of career is progress along a course.^[11] Early senses were “a racecourse” and “a short gallop at full speed, a charge”,^[11] as of a horse, from 1571.^[10] The general sense “course of action” is from the 1590s,^[2][10] and “the course of one's public or professional life” from 1803,^[2] a re-adoption from French in the 19th century, according to Hoad.^[8] The verb meant “to charge at a tournament” in the 1590s, and “to run at full speed” from the 1640s, from the image of a horse “passing a career” on the jousting field.^[2][10] The adjective, as in a career diplomat, is from 1952 in Merriam-Webster.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1534 – a swift course.^[10][3]
• 1571 – a horse's gallop.^[10]
• 1590s – a course of action; verb, to charge.^[2]
• 1640s – verb, to rush.^[2]
• 1803 – a course of professional life.^[2]
• 1952 – adjective.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A chosen profession or occupation.
2. The course of one's working life or professional achievements.
3. (archaic) A path or course, as of the sun across the sky.
4. Speed: in full career.

Adjective

1. Following an occupation as a permanent profession: a career diplomat.

Verb

1. To move swiftly and often out of control; to rush.

Word family

• careerism
• careerist
• career woman

Related words

• car
• carry
• cargo
• chariot
• carriage
• charge

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 k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press