consolidate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnsolidātus, the past participle of cōnsolidō (“to make firm or solid”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from con-, here an intensive prefix, and solidō (“to make firm or solid”),^[6][7][5] from solidus (“firm, whole, solid”),^[5][3][8] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary derive from Proto-Indo-European *sol- (“whole”).^[3][6] Barnhart suggests that it may instead be a back-formation from the older noun consolidation,^[2] and notes that it replaced the Middle English verb consouden, consolden, from Old French consolider.^[2] Caxton had used a verb consolid, from the same French word.^[3] Weekley thought that the military sense of 1915 was adapted from consolider.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To combine into one body or whole: the first record is in an Act of Parliament of 1511–12, in the reign of Henry VIII.^[5][2] Etymonline dates it to the 1510s,^[3] Merriam-Webster to about 1512,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1505–15.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to make firm or strong" follows in the 1530s or 1540s,^[3][5] and in 16th- and 17th-century surgery the verb was used of the sides of a wound or a broken bone growing together, a sense now obsolete (1563–1788).^[5] The Middle English noun consolidation had been used of the uniting of a broken bone or the healing of a wound before 1400.^[2] The literal sense "to make solid, form into a compact mass" is recorded from 1653,^[5][3] and the intransitive use, of things growing together or becoming firm, from 1626.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as forming into a compact and solid body, or hardening.^[11] From the 18th century it took on administrative and financial senses: uniting parishes or benefices (1712), combining items of revenue into one fund (1753) and combining several statutes into one (1817).^[5] The word consols, for consolidated annuities, is a short form from it.^[8] In the First World War it was used of securing a newly captured position.^[9]

Timeline

• 1511–12 – to combine into one body or whole.^[5][2]
• ?before 1547 – to make firm or strong.^[5]
• 1531 – the adjective consolidate, made solid, united.^[5]
• 1563 – to make the parts of a wound or fracture grow together (obsolete by 1788).^[5]
• 1626 – intransitive, to grow together.^[5][3]
• 1653 – to make solid; to solidify.^[5][3]
• 1712 – to unite two parishes or benefices.^[5]
• 1753 – to combine items of revenue into one fund.^[5]
• 1817 – to combine several statutes into one.^[5]
• 1885 – intransitive, to become solid or firm.^[5]
• 1915 – to secure a captured position.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To join several things into one unit or whole; to merge: The council consolidated its three offices into one building.^{[6][4][12][5]}
2. To make stronger, more secure or more stable: She consolidated her lead with a second goal.^[6][4][12]
3. (military) To strengthen control over a position or area that has just been taken.^[12][9]
4. To make solid or firm; to form into a compact mass.^[6][12][5]
5. To become solid or united; to combine.^[6][12][5]
6. (law) To combine separate statutes, actions or rights into one.^[4][5]

Adjective

1. (chiefly poetic) Made solid or firm; consolidated.^[5][4]

Word family

• consolidator
• preconsolidate
• reconsolidate

Related words

• consolidation
• solid
• consols

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins