Etymologically
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constant

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈkɒn.stənt/, US /ˈkɑːn.stənt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English constaunt,[2] borrowed from Old French constant and directly borrowed from Latin cōnstāns (“standing firm, stable, steadfast”),[3][2][4] the present participle of cōnstāre “to stand together, stand firm”,[3][2] from con- “with, together” and stāre “to stand”,[3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand”).[3] It is related to stand, cost and distant.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Steadfast, resolute, firm in mind: about 1386–1390 in the OED and Barnhart, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Faithful in attachment to a person or cause is from the early 15th century.[3][6] Of things and conditions, unchanging or invariable, is from the 1540s,[3][6] continual or enduring from the 1650s, and regularly recurring from 1817.[3] In mathematics the adjective is from 1753, and the noun, a quantity that does not vary, from 1832,[3][2] with the general “something that does not change” from 1856.[3] Constancy (1526) replaced Middle English constaunce.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1386 – steadfast, resolute.[6][2]
  • c. 1425 – faithful.[6]
  • 1540s – unchanging.[3]
  • 1650s – continual.[3]
  • 1753 – adjective, in mathematics.[3][2]
  • 1832 – noun, an invariable quantity.[3][2]
  • 1856 – noun, anything that does not change.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Happening all the time or again and again; continual.
  2. Staying the same; not varying.
  3. (literary) Faithful and loyal.

Noun

  1. Something that does not change.
  2. (mathematics, physics) A quantity with a fixed value, such as the speed of light.

Word family

  • constantly
  • nonconstant
  • unconstant
  • constant of integration
  • Boltzmann constant
  • cosmological constant
  • dielectric constant
  • Michaelis constant

References

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