comfort

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkʌm.fət/, /ˈkʌmp.fət/, US /ˈkʌm.fɚt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cunfort, confort, borrowed from Old French cunfort, confort (“consolation, solace; pleasure”), with the verb from conforter (“to help, strengthen, console”),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin cōnfortāre (“to strengthen much”), from com-, perhaps intensive, and fortis (“strong”).^[2][3] The change of n to m before f took place in English from the 14th century.^[2][3] It is related to fort and force.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, consolation in sorrow, is from before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle, about 1200 in Etymonline,^[3][2] and the verb, to cheer up or console, from about 1280.^[3][2] It replaced Old English frōfor.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant strength, support and encouragement, and the verb “to strengthen, encourage”;^[2][4] aid and comfort survives in law.^[4] A state of enjoyment from satisfied bodily wants and freedom from anxiety is from the mid-13th century,^[2] and a source of satisfaction from the 16th.^[5] Comforts, as opposed to necessities and luxuries, is from the 1650s,^[2] and material well-being from the 19th century.^[5] Comfortable is from about 1340, at first “pleasant, enjoyable”.^[3] Comfort food is by 1987.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – noun, consolation.^[2][3]
• c. 1280 – verb, to console.^[3]
• mid-13th century – well-being.^[2]
• c. 1340 – comfortable.^[3]
• 1650s – comforts.^[2]
• 1987 – comfort food.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A state of physical ease and well-being.
2. Relief from grief, worry or pain; solace.
3. A person or thing that brings comfort.
4. (comforts) Things that make life easy and pleasant.

Verb

1. To make someone feel less sad or worried; to console.
2. To ease physical pain.

Word family

• comfortingly
• comfortless
• comfortable
• discomfort
• comforter
• comforting
• cold comfort
• comfort food

Related words

• fort
• fortify

Usage notes

Comfort, console and solace share the sense “to give hope or help in grief or pain”.^[6] In Lincolnshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall dialect a comfort was a comfit or sweet sold at fairs.^[7]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ 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)