configure

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English configuren,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin cōnfigūrō (“to fashion after a pattern”),^{[4][5][3][6][7]} formed from com- (“with, together”) and figūrō (“to form, shape”),^[4][5][2] which is from figūra (“a shape, form, figure”),^[5][2][7] the source of figure;^[7] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *dheigh- (“to form, build”).^[5][2] The American Heritage Dictionary routes the word through Old French configurer,^[2] but the OED finds the French verb only from the 16th century.^[4] Dictionary.com explains the verb as a back-formation from configuration.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fashion something after another as a model, to conform it: 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, at Philippians 3:10.^[4][9] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, implied in the participle configured.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense echoed the Latin of the Bible verse, being made like Christ in his death,^[4][9] and the Shorter Oxford calls it now rare.^[9] In 1630 the verb briefly meant to represent by a figure.^[4] From 1652 it meant to put together in a particular arrangement or shape, at first also in astrology, of giving the heavens a configuration;^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to dispose into any form", quoting Bentley on limbs "configuring themselves into human shape".^[10] A figurative use, to give a shape to something, followed in 1858.^[4] The computing sense, to choose the configuration of a program or device and set it up for a task, is recorded from 1966, in the magazine Datamation,^[4] and has become the commonest use.^[11][2]

Timeline

• 1382 – to fashion according to a model, to conform.^[4][9]
• 1630 – to represent by a figure (obsolete).^[4]
• 1652 – to put together in a certain form or arrangement.^[4]
• 1858 – figuratively, to give shape to.^[4]
• 1966 – in computing, to set up a program or device for a task.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set up or design something for a particular use, especially to set up computer hardware or software as required: She configured the router to block unknown devices.^{[11][2][3][4]}
2. To arrange in a certain form, figure or shape.^[11][3][4]
3. (rare) To shape according to a model; to make conform.^[3][4][9]

Word family

• preconfigure
• reconfigure

Related words

• configuration
• figure
• transfigure
• disfigure

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins