Etymologically
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climate

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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

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