Etymologically
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commute

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kəˈmjuːt/[1]
  • US: /kəˈmjut/[1]

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

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