category

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkæt.ə.ɡər.i/, US /ˈkæt̬.ə.ɡɔːr.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French catégorie,^[2][3] or directly from Late Latin catēgoria,^[2][4] from Ancient Greek κατηγορία (katēgoría, “accusation, assertion, predication”),^[2][3][5] from katēgorein “to speak against, accuse, assert”,^[2][6] from kata- “down to, against” and agoreuein “to speak in the assembly”, from agorā “assembly”,^[2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to gather”).^[2] Hoad and Word Origins derive it from katēgoros “accuser”.^[4][5] It is related to agora and gregarious.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Aristotle's logic, each of his ten classes of terms: 1588 in the OED and Barnhart,^[7][3] though the plural form Categories, for his work, is found as early as 1450.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Greek verb's sense “accuse” had weakened to “assert, name” by the time Aristotle applied katēgoria to his ten classes of things that can be named simply.^[2] Precisely what he meant by it has been disputed almost since his own day.^[2] The general sense, a class or division in any scheme of classification, is from 1660,^[7] and Kant's use, for the a priori concepts of the understanding, is cited in English from 1829.^[7] An obsolete sense “accusation”, after the Greek, is from 1613.^[7] In mathematics, a category is from 1945.^[7] Categorical is from 1598^[3] and categorize from 1705.^[3]

Timeline

• 1588 – Aristotle's categories.^[7][3]
• 1598 – categorical.^[3]
• 1613 – an accusation (obsolete).^[7]
• 1660 – a class in a classification.^[7]
• 1705 – categorize.^[3]
• 1829 – Kant's categories.^[7]
• 1945 – in mathematics.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A class or division in a system of classification.
2. (philosophy) Any of the most general classes of things or concepts, as in Aristotle or Kant.
3. (mathematics) A collection of objects with mappings between them.

Word family

• subcategory
• category killer

Related words

• categorial
• categorical
• categorise
• categorize
• agora
• gregarious

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 c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press