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console

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The verb console, to comfort, and the noun console, a bracket or cabinet, are both from French, but the noun's origin is uncertain; it may come from consolateur, consoler, a name for carved supporting figures.[1][2][3]

console1 comfort

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /kənˈsəʊl/, US /kənˈsoʊl/[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French consoler (“to comfort”),[1][2][3][5] from Latin cōnsōlārī (“to offer solace, comfort”),[1][2] from com-, intensive, and sōlārī, to soothe (see solace).[1][2] It may instead be a back-formation from the earlier consolation (about 1385).[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To comfort in grief: 1673 in MWU, 1693 in Dryden's Juvenal in Barnhart, the 1690s in Etymonline.[3][2][1]

Semantic evolution

It replaced the earlier consolate.[5] Old English glossed the Latin verb with frēfran.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1385 – consolation.[2]
  • 1673 – to console.[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To comfort someone in sadness, loss or disappointment.

Word family

  • consolation
  • consolable
  • inconsolable
  • consoler

console2 cabinet, panel

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈkɒn.səʊl/, US /ˈkɑːn.soʊl/[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French console (“a bracket”), of uncertain origin,[1][2] probably shortened from Middle French consolateur, a consoler, a carved human figure supporting a cornice, from Latin cōnsōlātor,[2][3][1] because such figures supported the misericords of choir stalls;[2][1] Hoad and others connect it instead with consolider, to consolidate.[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ornamental bracket or corbel: 1664 in MWU, 1706 in the OED and Barnhart.[3][7][2]

Semantic evolution

A console table, supported by a bracket against a wall, is from 1813.[1][7] The frame enclosing the keyboards and stops of an organ is from 1881,[7][1] a cabinet for a radio or gramophone from 1925–26,[7] and a desk with switches and dials for controlling a machine from 1944.[7] A central control panel for an electronic system is a related modern use.[8]

Timeline

  • 1664 – a bracket.[3]
  • 1813 – console table.[7]
  • 1881 – an organ console.[7]
  • 1925 – a radio cabinet.[7]
  • 1944 – a control panel.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A panel or unit with the controls for a machine or electronic system.
  2. A cabinet for a radio, television or record player, made to stand on the floor.
  3. The part of an organ containing the keyboards, stops and pedals.
  4. (architecture) An ornamental bracket supporting a shelf or cornice.

Word family

  • console table

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin