Etymologically
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comfort

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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

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)