Etymologically
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charm

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /tʃɑːm/, /t͡ʃɑɹm/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English charme, borrowed from Old French charme (“magic charm, spell, incantation; song”),[2][3][4][5] from Latin carmen (“song, verse, incantation”),[3][2] from *canmen, with n dissimilated to r before m, from canere (“to sing”) (see chant),[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *kan- (“to sing”).[3] The verb is from Old French charmer, from Late Latin carminare.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An incantation or magic spell: probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The notion is of chanting verses of magical power.[3] The verb, to cast a spell, is from about 1300, and to win over or delight from the mid-15th century.[3][4] Anything worn to avert evil, an amulet, is from 1596, in Spenser's Faerie Queene,[2][6] and the trinket worn on a bracelet from 1865, as an extension of it.[2] A pleasing quality is first recorded in 1598, in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor,[2][6] and fascinating attractiveness in general from 1830.[6] Word Origins dates the charm offensive of politicians to the late 1970s.[7] In physics, a quantum number of certain elementary particles is a later sense.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – a magic spell.[2]
  • mid-15th century – to delight (verb).[3]
  • 1596 – an amulet.[2]
  • 1598 – a pleasing quality.[2]
  • 1865 – a bracelet trinket.[2]
  • late 1970s – charm offensive.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The power of pleasing or attracting people; attractiveness.
  2. A pleasing or attractive feature.
  3. A small ornament worn on a bracelet.
  4. An object worn for its supposed magical power to ward off evil; an amulet.
  5. A magic spell or the words used in casting it.
  6. (physics) A quantum number of certain elementary particles.

Verb

  1. To attract or delight greatly.
  2. To persuade by personal attractiveness.
  3. To cast a spell on; to bewitch.

Word family

  • charmingly
  • charmless
  • charmer
  • charmlessly
  • becharm
  • charming
  • charmonium
  • outcharm
  • chant
  • enchant
  • cantor
  • carmen

Usage notes

A separate dialect charm, the mingled song or hum of birds or bees, is probably a folk-etymology alteration of chirm;[5][9] the EDD records it across the Midland and southern counties,[9] and Skeat and Mayhew cite it in Milton and Spenser.[10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b 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 Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b 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)
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W.; Mayhew, A. L. (1914), A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press