Etymologically
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causal

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɔːzəl/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin causālis (“relating to a cause”),[2][3][4][5][6] from causa (“cause, reason”), the source of cause, and the suffix -ālis.[3][6][7] The OED, revising the entry in 2025, takes the noun from noun uses of the post-classical Latin adjective, for a causal conjunction and, in the neuter causāle, for a cause, and the adjective partly also borrowed from Middle French causal, recorded in French from 1404 and in Old French once in the 13th century as causel.[7] It compares Italian causale.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A noun, "a cause, a causal agent": before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.[7] The Oxford Dictionary of English dates the word to late Middle English, as a noun for a causal conjunction or particle.[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, "acting as a cause", follows in the early 15th century, in Lydgate.[7] Its use in grammar and logic, of a word or proposition that expresses a cause, is recorded from about 1450,[7] although Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford date it to the 16th century.[2][4] The wider sense "relating to a cause or causes" appears from 1569,[7][2] and "of the nature of cause and effect" from 1614.[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "relating to causes; implying or containing causes", with a quotation from Glanvill's Scepsis Scientifica.[8] In philosophy it now also describes theories that explain things in terms of causal relations.[9]

Timeline

  • before 1398 – noun, a cause or causal agent.[7]
  • before 1425 – adjective, being or acting as a cause.[7]
  • c. 1450 – grammar and logic, expressing causation.[7] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1530s.[2]
  • 1530 – noun, a word or particle that expresses causation.[7]
  • 1569 – of or relating to a cause or causation.[7][2]
  • 1614 – of the nature of cause and effect.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Being or acting as a cause: the causal factor in the outbreak.[9][3][7]
  2. Involving or relating to cause and effect: a causal link between diet and illness.[9][3][7]
  3. (grammar, logic) Expressing a cause or reason: "Since" can be a causal conjunction.[3][7][9]
  4. (philosophy) Of a theory: explaining something in terms of causal relations.[9]

Noun

  1. (grammar) A word or form that expresses a cause.[3][7]

Word family

  • causally
  • acausal
  • noncausal
  • uncausal
  • cause
  • causality
  • causation
  • causative

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins