Etymologically
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈkɒm.ent/, US /ˈkɑː.ment/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English comment (“commentary, exposition”),[2] possibly borrowed from Old French coment (“commentary”),[3][4] or directly from Late Latin commentum (“comment, interpretation”),[3][4][2] in classical Latin “invention, contrivance, fiction”,[3][2] the neuter past participle of comminīscī (“to contrive, devise”),[3][4] from com- and the base of meminisse (“to remember”), related to mēns (“mind”),[3][4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).[3] Isidore and other Christian writers took the Latin word for “interpretation, annotation”.[3] The verb is partly from the noun and partly from French commenter and Medieval Latin commentāre, from Latin commentārī “to think over, discuss”.[6][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An explanation or remark: 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon,[4] the late 14th century in Etymonline.[3] The OED's earliest sense, an expository treatise, a commentary, is from about 1400.[7]

Semantic evolution

A note explaining or criticizing a passage of a book is from 1509.[7] The verb meant “to devise, invent” in the 15th century, now obsolete,[7] and “to expound, explain” from the early 15th century (probably before 1425).[3][4] The modern verb, “to make remarks”, often unfavourable ones, is from 1591, in Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona.[4][7] The general sense “remark, criticism” is from 1847.[7] No comment as a stock refusal to answer a journalist is first recorded in 1950, from Truman's White House.[3][7] In Cornwall a comment seems to have been a drinking party.[8]

Timeline

  • 1387 – an explanation or remark.[4]
  • c. 1400 – a commentary.[7]
  • before 1425 – verb, to expound.[4]
  • c. 1450 – verb, to devise.[7]
  • 1509 – an explanatory note.[7]
  • 1591 – verb, to make remarks.[4][7]
  • 1950 – no comment.[3][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A spoken or written remark expressing an opinion or reaction.
  2. A note explaining, illustrating or criticizing a passage of writing; an annotation.
  3. Discussion or criticism; an indication of a state of affairs: a sad comment on our times.

Verb

  1. To make a comment; to give an opinion.
  2. To write notes on a text.

Word family

  • commentable
  • commenter
  • commentary
  • commentate
  • commentator
  • undercomment

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ 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)