Etymologically
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consume

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kənˈsum/; /kənˈsjuːm/, /kənˈʃuːm/ (UK)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English consumen, borrowed from Old French consumer and directly Latin cōnsūmō (“to take up completely, use up, eat, waste”),[2][3][4] from com- (here an intensive) and sūmō (“to take up”),[2][3] from sub- (“under, up”) and emō (“to buy, take”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- (“to take, distribute”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make away with, use up destructively: 1382 in the OED, about 1380 in Barnhart (Chaucer's Boece), the late 14th century in Etymonline, where it meant to destroy by burning or eating.[5][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Destroying by use, wearing out, is from about 1400,[2] and spending money or goods wastefully from 1460.[5] Eating or drinking food is from 1587.[5] To engage someone's whole attention and energy, as in consumed with jealousy, is from the 1570s.[2] The economic sense, to buy goods and services for use, is in the AHD,[6] and watching or reading broadcast or published information is in Collins.[7] Consumer is from about 1425, one who consumes or destroys.[3]

Timeline

  • 1382 – to use up destructively.[5]
  • c. 1425 – consumer.[3]
  • 1460 – to squander.[5]
  • 1570s – to engross.[2]
  • 1587 – to eat or drink.[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To eat or drink.
  2. To use up; to expend: my car consumes little oil.
  3. To destroy completely, as by fire.
  4. To absorb or engross, often in the passive: consumed with envy.
  5. To buy goods and services for one's own use.

Word family

  • consumable
  • overconsume
  • preconsume
  • unconsumable
  • underconsume
  • consumer

Usage notes

In Worcestershire and Suffolk, consume was used in angry curses, as in consume his old body.[8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)