cement

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɪˈment/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English siment, borrowed from Old French ciment (“cement, mortar, pitch”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin caementum (“rough unhewn stone, quarry stone”), in the plural chips of stone for making mortar,^[2][3][4][5] from earlier *caedmentum,^[4] from caedō (“to cut, hew”) (see concise),^[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *kae-id- (“to strike”).^[3] The spelling cement, from before 1398, follows Middle French cément.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A substance used to bind the stones or bricks of a building: probably before 1300, as cyment, in Kyng Alisaunder;^[2] about 1300 in the OED and Etymonline.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The change from broken stones to powdered stone for building happened before the word reached English.^[3] Cement was at first the material added to mortar to make something closer to concrete.^[7] Any substance that sticks surfaces together is from 1562, and figuratively a principle of union from 1606.^[6] The verb is from about 1400,^[3][4] and its figurative sense, to unite firmly, from about 1600.^[3] The bony crust of a tooth's root is from 1849–52,^[6] and cement mixer from 1875.^[3] The noun was stressed on the first syllable until modern times; it is now usually stressed like the verb.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – building cement.^[2][6]
• before 1398 – the spelling cement.^[2]
• c. 1400 – to cement (verb).^[3]
• 1562 – any adhesive.^[6]
• 1606 – a bond (figurative).^[6]
• 1875 – cement mixer.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A fine grey powder of calcined limestone and clay, mixed with water and sand to make mortar, or with aggregate to make concrete.
2. A binder, glue or adhesive.
3. Something that unites or joins; a bond.
4. (dentistry) Any of various materials used to fill teeth.
5. (geology) Mineral matter that binds together particles of rock.

Verb

1. To bind with cement, or as if with it.
2. To cover or coat with cement.

Word family

• cementer
• cementable
• cementless
• cementation
• cementite
• ferrocement
• recement
• asbestos cement

Related words

• concise
• excise
• incise
• decide

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