Etymologically
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conceptual

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kənˈsɛp.tjʊəl/, /kənˈsɛp.t͡ʃʊəl/[1]
  • US: /kənˈsɛp.t͡ʃu.əl/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin conceptuālis,[2][3][4][5][6][7] recorded in 1648,[2] from Latin conceptus (“a collecting, gathering, conceiving”),[5][8][3] and the suffix -ālis;[2][4] the noun comes from concipiō (“to take in, conceive”), whose past participle has the same form.[5][6] In later use the English word was re-formed from English concept + -ual.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Probably "conceived in the mind": 1662, in John Chandler's translation of van Helmont's Oriatrike, an isolated and now obsolete use.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

After the isolated 17th-century use the word reappears in 1825 in the OED (1820 in Etymonline, about 1834 in Merriam-Webster) for "of or relating to mental concepts".[2][5][4] Etymonline suggests that it arose to match the purely mental sense of conception, since it was hardly ever used of physical conceiving, for which conceptional appeared in 1832.[5] From 1969 it also described art in which the idea counts for more than the finished object, conceptual art.[2][7][4]

Timeline

  • 1648 – Medieval Latin conceptualis, in a work translated into English in 1662.[2]
  • 1662 – conceived in the mind (isolated use).[2][5]
  • 1825 – of or relating to mental concepts.[2]
  • 1969 – of conceptual art.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Relating to or based on concepts or ideas; abstract: a conceptual framework for the study.[9][4][2]
  2. Concerned with the definitions of the concepts of a field and how they relate, rather than with the facts.[9]
  3. Relating to or being conceptual art.[4][2]

Word family

  • conceptually
  • conceptuality
  • conceptualism
  • conceptualist
  • conceptualize
  • nonconceptual
  • postconceptual
  • conceptual art

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins