categorical

Etymology

It is from Late Latin catēgoricus with the English suffix -al;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the shorter categoric is the Latin adjective alone.^[4][7] The Latin is from Ancient Greek κατηγορικός (katēgorikós, “accusatory, affirmative, categorical”),^[5][8][4] from κατηγορία (katēgoría, “accusation, predication, category”),^[5][8] the source of category, from κατήγορος (katḗgoros, “accuser”), formed from κατά (katá, “against”) and ἀγορά (agorá, “assembly”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In logic, of a proposition: asserting absolutely, without a condition or hypothesis: 1598, in Florio's dictionary A Worlde of Wordes.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1588.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the logical term for an unconditional proposition, the word passed in the early 17th century into general use for a direct, explicit statement, or for a person who makes one;^[2][8] Johnson (1755) glossed it "absolute; adequate; positive", quoting Clarendon on a "categorical answer".^[9] The phrase categorical imperative, Kant's unconditional command of the moral law, binding on every rational will, entered English in 1796.^[2][7] In 1817 Coleridge used the word in the other sense, "of or belonging to the categories".^[2] A noun, a categorical proposition or syllogism, is recorded from 1619.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1598 – in logic, asserting absolutely, without condition.^[2]
• 1619 – noun, a categorical proposition or syllogism.^[2]
• before 1620 – of a statement or speaker, direct, explicit, unconditional.^[2][8]
• 1796 – categorical imperative, in Kant's ethics.^[2]
• 1817 – of or belonging to the categories, in Coleridge.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Absolute and unconditional; stated plainly, without any qualification: The minister issued a categorical denial.^[10][4][2]
2. Of, relating to, or arranged in categories.^[10][2]
3. (logic) Of a proposition: asserting something absolutely, not hypothetical or conditional.^[2][4]

Noun

1. (logic) A categorical proposition or judgment.^[4][2]

Word family

• categorically
• categoricalness
• noncategorical
• uncategorical
• categorical imperative

Related words

• category
• categoric
• agora
• allegory

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins