commensurate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin commēnsūrātus (“equal in measure”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from com- (“together, with”) and mēnsūrātus (“measured”), the past participle of mēnsūrō (“to measure”),^[6][3][7][8] which is from mēnsūra (“a measuring, a measure”),^[6][7][3] from mēnsus, the past participle of mētior (“to measure”).^[7] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *me- (“to measure”).^[7] The OED notes that the Latin adjective is found in Boethius.^[2] Skeat thought it a coined word, as if from a verb meaning to measure in comparison with.^[9] It is related to measure, which comes from the same Latin noun.^[10][6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of equal extent, duration or size; coextensive: 1641, in J. Jackson's True Evangelical Temper.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged give the same year,^[3][4] and Etymonline dates it to the 1640s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline explains the first sense, "of equal size", by the notion of having the same boundaries.^[7] The sense "proportionate, adequate", now the main one, followed in 1657.^[2] From 1644, in Milton, the word could also mean "of the same nature, belonging to the same sphere", a sense obsolete by the late 19th century.^[2][11] Locke used it in 1690 for "having a common measure", the sense of commensurable, which Etymonline dates to the 1680s and which is now rare.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) gave "reducible to some common measure" first and "equal, proportionable" second.^[12] A verb commensurate, to be of the same measure, to make proportionate or to measure, was formed from the adjective in 1643 and used until the early 18th century.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1641 – of equal extent or duration, coextensive.^[2][3][4]
• 1643 – the verb, to be of the same measure as (obsolete).^[2]
• 1644 – corresponding in nature, belonging to the same sphere (obsolete by 1875).^[2]
• 1657 – proportionate, adequate.^[2]
• 1690 – having a common measure, commensurable.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Matching in size, amount, extent or degree; proportionate: She was offered a salary commensurate with her experience.^[4][13][2]
2. Of the same extent or duration; coextensive.^[13][2]
3. Measurable by a common standard; commensurable.^[13][2]

Word family

• commensurately
• commensuration
• commensurateness
• uncommensurate

Related words

• measure
• commensurable
• mensuration
• immeasurable

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins