consequent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English consequent, first as a noun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French consequent (“following, resulting”)^[4][2][5] and directly borrowed from Latin cōnsequēns (“following closely”),^[4][2] the present participle of cōnsequor (“to follow closely”),^[5][6][3] formed from com- and sequor (“to follow”),^[5][4] from Proto-Indo-European *sekw- (“to follow”).^[4][5] The noun is the Latin participle used as a substantive.^[3][2] Anglo-Norman already had the noun consequent, recorded from the early 13th century, for a consequence or result.^[7] The OED and the Shorter Oxford derive both parts of speech from French,^[3][8] Collins derives the adjective from Latin,^[9] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the noun directly from Latin and the adjective from Middle French conséquent.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun in logic, that which follows from a premise: about 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[3][11] The adjective is first recorded about 1410: Barnhart gives "following, resulting" in 1410,^[6] the Middle English Dictionary "conclusive, logical" in Walton's Boethius, dated 1410 in a later copy,^[2] and Etymonline both senses in the early 15th century.^[4] The OED's first adjective quotation is Caxton's, 1477,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged's first date is 1509.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The noun came in with Chaucer as a term of reasoning, and he also used it for a result, as in Melibee: "The vengeance..is the consequent".^[2][3][12] These general senses later passed to consequence, and the noun now lives mainly in special uses.^[3][4] One of these is the second part of a conditional proposition, recorded from 1628,^[3] and another is the second term of a ratio, recorded from 1570,^[3] or the 1560s in Etymonline.^[4] Among the adjective's senses, "following in time or order" (1477–1742) died out,^[3] while "resulting" (from 1509 in the OED, about 1422 in the Middle English Dictionary) became the main sense.^[3][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as following by rational deduction or as the effect of a cause, with to or upon.^[13] Later additions are "logically consistent" from 1849,^[3] a use in magnetism, of poles in excess of the usual pair, from 1860,^[3][8] and a geological sense from 1875, in J. W. Powell's account of exploring the Colorado River, of a stream following the original slope of the land.^[3][8]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – noun, in logic, a conclusion from premises.^[3][11]
• c. 1386 – noun, a result or consequence, in Chaucer's Melibee.^[3][2]
• 1410 – adjective, conclusive, logical.^[2] The OED dates this sense to 1638.^[3]
• c. 1422 – adjective, resulting, in Hoccleve.^[2] The OED dates this sense to 1509.^[3]
• 1477 – adjective, following in time or order (obsolete by 1742).^[3]
• 1550 – noun, a follower or pursuer (obsolete by 1655).^[3]
• 1570 – noun, the second term of a ratio.^[3] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[4]
• 1612 – noun, anything following something else in order.^[3]
• 1628 – noun, the second part of a conditional proposition.^[3]
• 1849 – adjective, logically consistent.^[3]
• 1875 – adjective, of a stream following the original slope of the land.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Following as an effect or result, often with on or upon.^[9][10][3]
2. Following as a logical conclusion or by reasoning.^[9][10][3]
3. Logically consistent in thought or argument.^[3][8]
4. (geology) Of a river or valley, following the original slope of the land.^[9][3][8]
5. (obsolete, 1477–1742) Following in time or order; subsequent.^[10][3]

Noun

1. (logic) A conclusion reached by reasoning; an inference.^[10][3][8]
2. (logic) The clause of a conditional statement that says what the condition entails.^[9][10][3]
3. Something that follows something else, in time, order or as a result.^[9][10][3]
4. (mathematics) The second of two terms in a ratio.^[3][8]
5. affirming the consequent: (logic) the fallacy of inferring the antecedent of a conditional from its truth and that of its consequent.^[9]
6. (obsolete, c. 1386–1756) A consequence or outcome.^[10][3][8]
7. (obsolete, 1550–1655) A follower or pursuer.^[3][8]

Word family

• consequential
• consequently
• nonconsequent

Related words

• consequence
• sequence
• sequel
• subsequent
• consecutive
• sue

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.