climate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈklaɪ.mət/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English climat,^[2] borrowed from Old French climat (“region, part of the earth”),^[3][4] from Late Latin clima (“region; slope of the earth”) (genitive climatis),^[3][4][5] from Ancient Greek κλίμα (klíma, “inclination, slope; region, zone”),^[3][4] from κλίνω (klínō, “to incline, slope”),^[4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *klei- (“to lean”).^[3] It is related to clime, climax, incline and lean.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A belt of the earth's surface between two parallels of latitude: 1375, in the Scottish form climat, in Barbour's Bruce.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The ancient geographers divided the earth into zones by the angle of the sun on the slope of its surface and the length of daylight,^[3][8] reckoning 7, 12, 24 or 30 climates;^[3] Chaucer and Mandeville use the word in this sense.^[8] As changes of temperature came to seem more important, by the late 14th century the word meant a region considered with respect to its weather,^[3] 1398 in the OED.^[7] The current sense, the prevailing weather of a region, is from 1611, in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale,^[4][7] or about 1600 in Etymonline.^[3] The figurative sense, the moral or intellectual atmosphere of a time or place, is from 1661.^[7][3] climatic is from the 19th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1375 – a zone of latitude.^[4][7]
• 1398 – a region with its weather.^[7]
• 1477 – a region.^[7]
• 1611 – prevailing weather.^[4][7]
• 1661 – figurative atmosphere.^[7]
• 19th century – climatic.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The usual weather conditions of a region, such as temperature, rainfall and wind, over a long period.
2. A region with particular weather conditions.
3. The prevailing attitudes or conditions of a time or place: the political climate.

Word family

• acclimate
• acclimatise
• acclimatize
• climatize
• macroclimate
• subclimate
• climatology
• microclimate

Related words

• client
• climatic
• climax
• cline
• lean
• clime
• incline
• clinic

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker