Etymologically
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consolidate

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kənˈsɒl.ɪ.deɪt/[1]
  • US: /kənˈsɑ.lə.deɪt/[1]

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

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