communicate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin communicatus, the past participle of commūnicāre (“to share, impart, inform”), literally to make common,^[2][3][4] from communis (“common, public”) (see common).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To share or partake of: 1526 in the OED and MWU;^[7][3] to impart information, 1529.^[7] Etymonline dates it from the 1520s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

To transmit a disease or quality is from the 1530s.^[2] In the Church, to receive or administer Holy Communion is 16th-century.^[5] The intransitive to share thoughts, exchange information developed later,^[2] and of rooms or passages, to have a common opening, is from the 18th century.^[5] An adjective communicate, imparted, was used from late Middle English to the early 18th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1526 – to share.^[7][3]
• 1529 – to impart information.^[7]
• 1530s – to transmit a disease.^[2]
• 18th century – of rooms, to connect.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To exchange information, ideas or feelings with others.
2. To make known; to convey.
3. To pass on a disease or feeling.
4. Of rooms or spaces, to be connected.
5. (Christianity) To receive Communion.

Word family

• communicator
• communicatee
• intercommunicate
• miscommunicate
• noncommunicating
• overcommunicate
• telecommunicate
• uncommunicating

Related words

• communication
• communion
• incommunicado
• common
• community
• excommunicate
• communism

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press