column

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkɒl.əm/, US /ˈkɑː.ləm/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English columne, partly borrowed from Old French columpne, colombe (modern French colonne),^[2][3][4] and partly from its source, Latin columna (“pillar, post”),^[2][4][5] related to columen (“top, summit”), celsus “high” and collis “hill”,^[3][2][6] from the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to be prominent; hill”),^[3][2] which also gave English hill and excel.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vertical division of a page: about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum;^[2][8] a pillar, before 1449 in Barnhart and 1481 in the OED.^[2][8] Word Origins notes that the two senses appeared at about the same time.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A military formation narrow in front and deep, as opposed to a line, is from the 1670s.^[3] An upright mass of water, air or smoke is first in Milton in 1671,^[7][8] and the spinal column from 1828.^[7] The matter written for a newspaper column, a regular article, is from 1785,^[3][2][7] which gave columnist, American English in 1920.^[2] A natural column of rock is from 1775,^[8] and a distilling column from 1875.^[8] Columnar is from 1728.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – a division of a page.^[2][8]
• before 1449 – a pillar.^[2]
• 1670s – a military column.^[3]
• 1671 – a column of smoke or water, in Milton.^[7]
• 1785 – a newspaper column.^[3][2]
• 1828 – the spinal column.^[7]
• 1920 – columnist.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An upright pillar, usually round, that supports part of a building or stands alone as a monument.
2. Something long and upright like a pillar: a column of smoke.
3. A vertical section of text on a page.
4. A regular article in a newspaper or magazine.
5. A long, narrow line of troops, vehicles or people, one behind another.
6. A vertical row of figures in a table.

Word family

• columned
• columnar
• columnist
• agony column
• column inch
• column vector
• fifth column
• flying column

Related words

• colonnade
• hill
• excel
• culminate

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 d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press