Etymologically
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compose

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kəmˈpəʊz/[1]
  • US: /kəmˈpoʊz/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English composen, also compousen,[2][3] borrowed from Old French composer (“to put together, arrange; to write”),[4][3][5][6] recorded in French from the 12th century.[5][4] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the early 12th century, already in the senses of putting together and of writing a work.[7] The French verb is formed from com- (“together”) and poser (“to place, put down”),[5][4][3] from Late Latin pausō (“to cease, lie down, lay down”), the source of pause.[5][4] According to the OED, poser was associated with the forms of Latin pōnō (“to put, place”), whose past participle is positus, until the French verb replaced the older compondre and came to be linked with composition, compositor and compost, although it has no origin in common with them.[5] Most dictionaries therefore describe the French word as based on compōnō (“to put together, arrange”) but re-formed after its participle compositus and after poser;[6][8][9][10][11] Etymonline says the same confusion is found in expose, oppose, repose and transpose.[4] Collins and Ayto give the Latin verb as the source,[12][13] and Skeat stresses that the word is distinct from compound.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To write or compose a book: about 1400, in a Middle English translation of the Regement of Princes ("to compous or make a boke").[2][4] Barnhart dates the verb probably before 1402.[15][3] The OED's first record is from 1477, in Caxton, for mixing or compounding things together.[5]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of making something by putting parts together, now obsolete except in special uses, is recorded from 1481, in Caxton.[5][4] The passive to be composed of, to consist of, follows in about 1541,[5] and the active sense of being the parts that make something up in 1665, in Boyle.[5] Writing a literary work is recorded from 1483,[5] and the musical sense from 1597, in Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction to Musicke;[5][4] Dryden used it in 1685 for setting words to music.[5] Printers used it for setting type from 1637,[5][4] though Etymonline notes that their usual word was set.[4] From about 1600 the verb also meant to calm or quiet,[4] and Johnson (1755) listed "to calm; to quiet" and "to adjust; to settle" among its senses.[16] The artistic sense of arranging the elements of a painting or landscape is recorded from 1656 in the OED;[5] Etymonline dates it to 1782.[4] A short-lived noun compose, a composition, was used from 1581 to 1603.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – compousen, to write a book.[2][4]
  • 1477 – to compound or mix (obsolete).[5]
  • 1481 – to make by putting parts together.[5]
  • 1483 – to write as an author.[5]
  • c. 1541 – passive, to be made up of.[5]
  • 1597 – to compose music.[5][4]
  • c. 1600 – to calm, quiet.[4]
  • 1637 – to set up type.[5]
  • 1656 – to arrange the parts of a whole, especially of a picture.[5]
  • 1665 – to be the parts that make up something.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To write or create a literary or musical work: She composed a string quartet for the festival.[12][10][5]
  2. To write music.[12][5]
  3. To make up or constitute something; to be its parts, often in the passive: The panel is composed of nine judges.[12][10][5]
  4. To make something by putting parts together, or to put them in proper order.[12][10]
  5. To calm someone, especially oneself: He took a deep breath to compose himself.[12][16]
  6. To settle a quarrel or dispute.[12][16]
  7. To arrange the elements of a painting, photograph or sculpture.[12][5]
  8. To set type for printing.[12][5][10]

Word family

  • composable
  • photocompose
  • precompose
  • recompose
  • composer

Usage notes

Traditionally the parts compose the whole and the whole comprises the parts; the American Heritage Dictionary notes that many writers keep this distinction, but that comprise is more and more used in the sense of compose.[17]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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 z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin