Etymologically
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competency

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒm.pə.tən.si/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑm.pə.tən.si/[1]

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

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