charge

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /tʃɑːdʒ/, US /tʃɑːrdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English chargen (“to load”),^[2][3] borrowed from Old French chargier (“to load, burden, weigh down”),^[4][3] from Late Latin carricāre (“to load a wagon or cart”),^[4][3][2] from Latin carrus (“two-wheeled wagon”),^[4][5] a Gaulish type of wagon, of Celtic origin.^[2] The noun is from Old French charge “a load, burden”, from chargier.^[3][4] It is a doublet of carry^[3] and of cargo,^[4] and related to car.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, “a load, weight”: probably before 1200, in an earlier version of the Ancrene Riwle,^[3] or about 1200.^[4] The verb, “to load, fill”: before 1250,^[3] or the early 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The senses “to entrust”, “to command” and “to accuse” all arose in Middle English and were already in Old French.^[4][3] The noun meant a responsibility or burden from the mid-14th century, as in take charge (late 14th century) and in charge (1510s);^[4] this led to the burden of expense in the mid-15th century and to a price asked for goods or services in the 1510s.^[4][3] The legal sense “accusation” is from the late 15th century, earlier “injunction, order”,^[4][6] and a judge's address to a jury from the 1680s.^[4] To charge, “rush to attack”, is from the 1560s (1583), perhaps through the sense “to load a weapon”, from 1541.^[3][4] The quantity of powder for one shot is from 1653.^[7] The electrical sense, of the noun, is from 1767,^[7] and of the verb, “to fill with electricity”, from 1748.^[4] “To ask as a price” is from 1787, and “to record as a debt” by 1889.^[4] In slang a charge was a dose of a drug from 1929 and a thrill or kick in American English from 1951.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1200 – noun, a load.^[3]
• before 1250 – verb, to load.^[3]
• mid-14th century – responsibility; to impose expense.^[4]
• late 15th century – an accusation.^[4]
• 1541 – to load a weapon.^[3]
• 1583 – to rush to attack.^[3]
• 1680s – a judge's charge to a jury.^[4]
• 1748 – to fill with electricity.^[4]
• 1787 – to ask as a price.^[4]
• 1951 – a thrill (US slang).^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To ask an amount as a price or fee.
2. To record a purchase as a debt, as on a credit card.
3. To formally accuse someone of a crime.
4. To rush forward in an attack.
5. To give someone a duty or responsibility.
6. To put electricity into a battery or device.
7. To load or fill.

Noun

1. The price asked for something; a cost.
2. A formal accusation of a crime.
3. Care, custody or responsibility: in charge of; a person in someone's care.
4. A rushing attack.
5. An amount of explosive fired at one time.
6. (physics) A quantity of electricity held by a body or particle.
7. Instructions given by a judge to a jury.

Word family

• chargeless
• charge-off
• chargeback
• precharge
• chargeful
• countercharge
• hypercharge
• mischarge

Related words

• cargo
• cark
• carack
• caricature
• discharge
• surcharge
• carry
• car
• career
• overcharge
• chargé d'affaires

Usage notes

Chargé, from 1767, is short for chargé d'affaires, a diplomat in charge of an embassy in the ambassador's absence.^[7][8][5] In Scots and Northumbrian dialect charges (chairge) still meant expense, cost.^[9]

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)