Etymologically
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concrete

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: noun, adjective UK /ˈkɒŋ.kriːt/, /ˈkɒn.kriːt/, US /ˈkɑːn.kriːt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English concret, from Latin concrētus (“grown together, hardened, congealed”) (perhaps through French concret),[2][3][4][5] the past participle of concrēscere “to grow together”, from con- “together” and crēscere “to grow”.[2][3][6] It is related to crescent, increase and accrue.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Denoting an actual or solid substance rather than a quality: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It was chiefly a term of logicians and grammarians, the opposite of abstract, until the 17th century, when it spread to mean particular or real, as in Milton, Hobbes and Burke.[3][2][7] Grown together, united, is from 1471 and obsolete.[7] The noun, something material, is from the 1520s, and a mass formed by concretion from the 1650s (1656 in Barnhart).[2][3] The building material of sand, gravel and stone held with cement is from 1834.[2][3][6] The verb, to form a solid mass, is from 1635.[7] Concrete poetry (1958) translates terms coined in Brazil and Germany in the 1950s.[2]

Timeline

  • a. 1398 – denoting a substance.[3]
  • 1520s – noun, something material.[2]
  • 1635 – verb, to solidify.[7]
  • 1656 – a solid mass.[3]
  • 1834 – the building material.[2][3]
  • 1958 – concrete poetry.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A hard building material made by mixing cement, sand, gravel and water.

Adjective

  1. Made of concrete.
  2. Definite and specific rather than vague: concrete evidence.
  3. Existing in a real, physical form; not abstract.
  4. (grammar) Of a noun, naming a physical thing.

Verb

  1. To cover or set something in concrete.

Word family

  • concretely
  • concreteness
  • concretive
  • concretively
  • concretion
  • concretize
  • concretism
  • ferroconcrete

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 h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press