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concept

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈkɒn.sept/, US /ˈkɑːn.sept/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French concept,[2] or directly from Medieval Latin conceptum (“draft, abstract”),[3][4] Late Latin conceptus (“thought, draft”),[2][5] in classical Latin “a thing conceived; a fetus”,[3][2] from concipere (“to take in and hold; to become pregnant”),[3][2] from con- and capere (“to take”),[3] from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).[3] It is related to conceive and conception.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thought, opinion, frame of mind: 1556,[2][5][6] in the same senses as conceit.[6][4]

Semantic evolution

In some 16th-century uses it was a refashioning of conceit, perhaps to avoid the bad connotations that had begun to cling to that word.[3] In logic and philosophy, the product of the faculty of conception, a general idea of a class of objects, is from 1663.[6] The weakened sense, a general idea or plan, especially in marketing and the media, is from 1956,[6] and the American Heritage Dictionary notes that this loose use sounds most at home in entertainment and advertising.[7] Combinations such as concept album and concept car are later.[8]

Timeline

  • 1556 – thought, opinion.[2][6]
  • 1663 – in logic, a general notion.[6]
  • 1956 – a plan or idea, in marketing.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A general idea derived from particular instances; an abstract notion.
  2. Something conceived in the mind; a thought.
  3. A plan or scheme, especially a new idea for a product: a new restaurant concept.

Word family

  • conceptor
  • high-concept
  • self-concept
  • concept art
  • conceive
  • conceptual
  • misconceive
  • misconception
  • conception
  • conceit
  • capture
  • accept

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster