compass

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French compas (“measure; circle; pair of compasses”) (12th century),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from compasser (“to measure, go round, divide equally; to devise”),^[3][4][5][7] which also gave the English verb, through cumpasser.^[3][8] The French verb continues Vulgar Latin *compassō (“to pace out, measure off by steps”),^{[3][9][10][11]} from com- (“with, together”) and passus (“step, pace”),^[3][9][12] the source of pace.^[4][11] The OED notes that the early history is uncertain, including whether the noun came from the verb or the verb from the noun,^[2] and the Oxford Dictionary of English that the development of the senses already found in Old French is unclear.^[6] The sense of the mariner's instrument is held to have arisen in Italian compasso, from the round box of the compass.^[8][6] Etymonline and Weekley note that the word has a mathematical sense in the Romance languages and a nautical one in the Germanic (Kompass, kompas), while English has both.^[3][13][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The circumference of something, or a space or area: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi according to Barnhart,^[14] about 1300 according to Etymonline.^[3] The OED's earliest quotation, from about 1320, is for the now obsolete sense of skilful devising, ingenuity or cunning,^[2][8] and Middle English also used compass as an adverb, as in go compass, to go in a circle.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The instrument for drawing circles was called a compass by 1349 according to Barnhart,^[4] from the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[3][2] The direction-finding instrument took the name in the early 15th century,^[3][4] perhaps because it too is round and has a point.^[3] Weekley derived the figurative senses, such as within compass and to fetch a compass, from the mathematical one.^[13] The sense "limits, boundary" appeared in the 1550s,^[3] and the range of notes of a voice or instrument in the 1590s.^[3] Johnson (1755) listed "circle; round" and "extent; reach; grasp", quoting Juliet's past the compass of my wits.^[15] In Cheshire dialect compass meant the extent of a piece of land.^[16] The verb meant to plot or devise by about 1300, and to surround or enclose from the early 14th century;^[3][2][8] Chaucer used it about 1380 for "to encircle",^[14] and the sense "to attain, achieve" (to compass one's ends) dates from the 16th century,^[8][13] usually with an idea of scheming.^[13]

Timeline

• 1297 – the verb, to contrive or plot.^[2]
• c. 1320 – ingenuity, cunning (obsolete).^[2]
• before 1325 – circumference, extent.^[14][3]
• 1349 – an instrument for drawing circles.^[4]
• early 15th century – the mariner's compass.^[3][4]
• 1523 – the adjective, curved.^[7]
• 1550s – limits, boundary.^[3]
• 1590s – the range of a voice or instrument.^[3]
• 1837 – a southern constellation.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An instrument for finding direction, with a magnetized needle that swings to point to magnetic north.
2. Often compasses or a pair of compasses: a drawing instrument with two hinged legs, used for drawing circles and measuring distances.
3. Range or scope; the limits within which something lies: Such questions fall outside the compass of this report.
4. (music) The range of notes a voice or instrument can produce.

Verb

1. (literary) To plot or contrive; to bring about or achieve.
2. (literary) To go round; to surround or encircle.

Word family

• compassable
• compassless
• gyrocompass
• encompass
• outcompass
• beam compass
• bow compass
• compass card

Related words

• pace
• pass

Usage notes

In Hertfordshire dialect compass (also cumpass) meant manure or compost, and as a verb to dress the soil;^[16] the OED records these uses, from 1557 to 1730, as alterations of compost.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b 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)