competency

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin competentia (“meeting together, agreement, symmetry”),^[2][3][4] which in Medieval Latin also meant suitability or competence;^[5][4] Dictionary.com allows a passage through Middle French.^[5] The Latin noun is from competens, the present participle of competō (“to meet or come together; to agree; to be qualified”),^[3] formed from com- (“with, together”) and petō (“to strive, seek”), from Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to rush, to fly”).^[3] The Shorter Oxford treats the word as a parallel form of competence with the suffix -ency, and takes its obsolete sense "rivalry" from the Latin verb in the sense of compete, to strive together.^[6] The OED refers to competence for the history of its senses;^[2] that word came through French compétence.^[2][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rivalry, competition: 1594, in R. Carew's translation of J. Huarte's Examination of Mens Wits, a sense obsolete by 1637.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1596,^[4][9] Dictionary.com to 1585–95,^[5] and Etymonline to the 1590s, in the sense of a sufficiency to satisfy the wants of life.^[3] The Shorter Oxford dates the sense "an adequate supply" to the late 15th century, much earlier than the OED's first record of it (1616).^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The OED divides the word into two branches: one from compete in the sense "to strive together", which gave the short-lived "rivalry", and one from the Latin verb's sense "to be fitting or sufficient", which gave the rest.^[2][6] In the 17th century the second branch meant above all a sufficient income, enough to live on without superfluity: Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (1600) has the state of having such an income,^[2][8] and Johnson (1755) defined it as such a fortune, quoting the same play's "superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer".^[10] The legal sense, the capacity of a person or a court to act, is recorded from 1609,^[2][8] and Johnson gave it as the power of a judge or court to take cognizance of a case.^[10] The general sense of sufficient qualification or ability appears in Burke in 1797,^[2][3] and geologists used it from 1893 for the condition of a competent stratum.^[2][8] Used as a count noun, a competency has meant a particular skill or ability since 1896, and now especially a professional skill needed for a job.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1594 – rivalry, competition (obsolete by 1637).^[2][8]
• 1600 – the condition of having enough income to live in comfort, in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.^[2]
• 1609 – legal capacity, in S. Daniel's Civile Wares.^[2][8]
• 1616 – a sufficient supply of something (obsolete by 1734).^[2] The Shorter Oxford dates this sense to the late 15th century.^[6]
• 1625 – an income sufficient for the needs of life.^[2][8]
• 1797 – sufficiency of qualification; capacity, in Burke.^[2][8]
• 1893 – in geology, the condition of being competent.^[2][8]
• 1896 – a particular skill or ability.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Competence; the ability to do something well enough.^[11][4][2]
2. A particular skill or ability, especially one needed for a job or role: The course builds three core competencies.^[11][2]
3. (law) Legal capacity, especially a witness's fitness to testify in court.^[12][2]
4. An income large enough to live on in modest comfort.^[2][10]
5. (geology) The capacity of a rock stratum to bear pressure.^[2][8]
6. (obsolete, 1594–1637) Rivalry, competition.^[2][6]
7. (obsolete, 1616–1734) An adequate supply of something.^[2][6][10]

Word family

• noncompetency

Related words

• competence
• competent
• compete

Usage notes

Collins treats competency as a less common word for competence in its main senses, ability and sufficient means, but gives it a legal sense of its own, the capacity to testify in a court of law.^[12] The American Heritage Dictionary likewise defines it first as competence, then as a particular skill.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins