cautionary

Etymology

The OED takes it as borrowed from Medieval Latin cautiōnārius,^[2][3] from Latin cautiō (“caution; bond, security”),^[3][2] a noun of action from the past participle of caveō (“to take heed, beware”),^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *keu- (“to see, observe, perceive”);^[4] it compares French cautionnaire.^[2] Etymonline and Dictionary.com instead take it as formed from English caution + -ary.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of a pledge or security; held in pledge or as a hostage: 1597, in F. Vere's Commentaries.^[2] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the 1590s and 1590–1600.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first followed the older legal sense of caution, a pledge or surety, which came into English through French: cautionary towns were towns handed over as a security.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) still defined it only as "given as a pledge, or in security".^[7] That sense is now chiefly historical or Scottish, kept in Scots law.^[2][3] In the 17th century the word followed caution into its Latin sense of heedfulness: it meant cautious from 1605, in Bacon, to 1806,^[2] and precautionary from 1678 to 1826.^[2] The sense now usual, conveying a warning, is recorded by the OED from 1638, frequently in the phrase cautionary tale;^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1590s.^[4] The noun, a security or surety, was used from before 1639.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1597 – of the nature of a pledge or security, held as a hostage.^[2]
• 1605 – cautious (obsolete by 1806).^[2]
• 1638 – conveying a warning or admonition.^[2]
• before 1639 – noun, a security.^[2]
• 1655 – noun, a personal surety (obsolete).^[2]
• 1678 – precautionary (obsolete by 1826).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Serving as or giving a warning; admonitory: a cautionary story about online scams.^[9][8][2]
2. (historical) Of or held as a pledge or security, especially in Scots law.^[2][3][8]
3. (archaic) Cautious, wary.^[8][2]

Noun

1. A security or surety.^[8][2]

Related words

• caution
• cautious
• precaution
• precautionary
• caveat

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 p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins