commencement

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English commencement, also shortened to comsemente,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French comencement (“beginning, start”),^[4][3][5] modern commencement.^[4][5] The Old French noun is formed from the verb comencier (“to begin”) and the suffix -ment;^[4][3][6] the OED compares Old Occitan comensamens, Catalan comensament and Italian cominciamento, and takes the formation to go back to the Romance period.^[3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1113–19, already with the senses "beginning, onset" and "ceremony of conferring the full degree of Master or Doctor".^[7] The verb, the source of commence, comes from Vulgar Latin *cominitiō, from Latin com- and initiō (“to initiate, begin”), from initium (“a beginning”), from ineō (“to go into, begin”).^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A beginning, the act or fact of beginning: about 1250 in the OED, in a sermon in the Old English Miscellany;^[3] the MED dates the same Kentish sermon about 1275.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

From the late 14th century, first in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, the word was used at the universities for the act of taking the full degree of Master or Doctor,^[3][2][4] that is, of "beginning" as a master; at Cambridge, Dublin and the American universities it came to mean the great ceremony at which degrees are conferred.^[3][8] In American English it is recorded by 1850 for the graduation ceremony of a college, and was then extended to the graduation of academies and lower schools.^[4][9] Johnson (1755) gave only the sense "beginning; date".^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a beginning.^[3]
• before 1387 – the taking of the full degree of Master or Doctor; the ceremony of conferring degrees.^[3][2]
• 1570 – transferred and figurative uses of the degree sense.^[3]
• 1850 – a school or college graduation ceremony, in American English.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beginning or start; the time when something begins: The fee is payable at the commencement of the course.^[9][6][3]
2. A ceremony at which degrees or diplomas are conferred, or the day on which it takes place, chiefly in the United States and Canada.^[9][6][8]

Word family

• noncommencement

Related words

• commence
• initiate
• initial

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.