commute

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English commuten (“to change, transform”),^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin commūtō (“to change altogether, exchange, interchange”),^[5][3][6][4] formed from com- (“together, altogether”) and mūtō (“to change”).^[5][7][6][4] Etymonline takes the prefix here as perhaps intensive, and follows Watkins in tracing the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“to change, go, move”).^[3] The OED explains the English form by analogy with verbs that came through French, such as transmute.^[5] The same Latin verb is the source of mutant, permutation and moult.^[8] The noun, a journey made by commuting, is a conversion of the verb.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To change something into something else, to transform: about 1450, in a Middle English poem that tells how Jupiter changed himself into a bull.^[2][6][3] The OED, in an entry not revised since 1891, has no record before 1633.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 1630s the verb took on the senses "to give one thing in exchange for another" and "to make less severe".^[3][6][5] From 1633 it was also used of buying off one obligation with another, which Johnson defined as "to buy off or ransom one obligation by another".^[5][10] From 1642 a punishment or sentence could be commuted to a lighter one, as from 1795 could one kind of payment, especially many payments into a single one.^[5] In the United States a commutation ticket was a ticket for a number of rides bought at a reduced price, recorded by 1822; because the daily fares were commuted into one payment, the holder was a commuter, and by 1889, in the Century Dictionary, to commute was to buy and use such a ticket, and then to travel regularly between home and work by any means.^{[3][11][5][6]} According to Cresswell, Americans have been commuting since the 1860s, and the word reached Britain only in the 1930s.^[8] The technical senses followed: in electricity, to regulate the direction of a current (1884), and in algebra, of two quantities, to give the same result in either order (1928).^[5] The noun, a journey to or from work, is recorded from 1960 in the OED and Etymonline,^[5][3] but Merriam-Webster dates it to 1954.^[9] In southern Worcestershire dialect, to commute a dream was to explain it.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – to change something into something else.^[2][6]
• 1633 – to give one thing in exchange for another; to buy off an obligation.^[5][6]
• 1642 – to change a punishment or sentence into a lighter one.^[5]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as to exchange, to put one thing in place of another.^[13]
• 1795 – to change one kind of payment into another.^[5]
• 1822 – commutation ticket and commuter recorded in the United States.^[3]
• 1884 – to regulate the direction of an electric current.^[5]
• 1889 – to buy and use a commutation ticket; to travel daily between home and work.^[5][6]
• 1928 – in algebra, of quantities, to give the same result in either order.^[5]
• 1954 – noun, an act of commuting (Merriam-Webster); 1960 in the OED.^[9][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To travel regularly over some distance between one's home and one's place of work: She commutes to the city by ferry.^[14][5]
2. (law) To reduce a sentence or punishment to a less severe one: The governor commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.^[14][5]
3. To give or put one thing in place of another; to exchange or substitute.^[14][9][5]
4. To change an obligation or a series of payments into another form, especially a single payment.^[14][9][5]
5. To change or transform: to commute lead into gold.^[14][9]
6. (mathematics) Of two quantities or operations, to give the same result in whatever order they are taken.^[5]
7. To regulate the direction of an electric current.^[5]

Noun

1. A journey made in commuting, or the distance travelled: a forty-minute commute.^[14][9][5]

Word family

• commutable
• commutative
• commutation
• uncommuted
• commuter
• telecommute

Related words

• mutate
• mutation
• mutable
• mutant
• permutation
• transmute
• moult

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins