census

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɛnsəs/ (UK)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin census (“registration of citizens and their property”), originally the past participle of cēnsēre (“to assess, tax”) (see censor).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A poll tax: 1613;^[2][5][4] the registration of citizens and their property in ancient Rome, 1634.^[5][2] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Rome the purpose was the assessment of property for taxation, so Latin census also meant one's wealth.^[3] The modern sense, an official count of the population with details, is first recorded in 1769, in Goldsmith,^[2][5] and as a practice begins in the US (1790) and revolutionary France (1791).^[3] The tax sense lasted to the mid-19th century.^[6] The verb, to take a census of, is from 1881.^[5]

Timeline

• 1613 – a poll tax.^[2][5]
• 1634 – the Roman census.^[5]
• 1769 – an official count of population.^[2][5]
• 1881 – the verb.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An official count of a country's population, with details such as age and occupation.
2. A count of a particular group, such as birds in an area.
3. (history) The registration of citizens and their property in ancient Rome.

Word family

• precensus
• census tract

Related words

• censor
• censure
• cense

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press