Etymologically
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Pronunciation

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

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English context (“composition; a weaving together of words”),[2][3] borrowed from Latin contextus (“a joining together; connection, coherence”),[4][5] originally the past participle of contexere (“to weave together, join, connect”),[4][5] from con- “together” and texere (“to weave, make”),[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *teks- (“to weave, fabricate”).[4][2] It is related to text, textile and texture.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A literary composition, a chronicle, the whole text of a writing: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,[5] the early 15th century in Etymonline;[4] the OED's first sense, the weaving together of words and sentences, is from 1432–50.[7]

Semantic evolution

The connected structure of a writing is from 1526.[7] “The parts of a text or discourse that precede or follow a given passage and are directly connected with it” is from the 1560s,[4] about 1568 in Barnhart, the OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate.[5][7][3] The transferred sense, the circumstances or setting in which something happens, is from 1842,[7] and in this context, “in this connection”, from 1873.[7] Contextual is from the 19th century.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – a composition.[5]
  • 1526 – the structure of a writing.[7]
  • c. 1568 – the surrounding text.[5][7]
  • 1842 – circumstances, setting.[7]
  • 1873 – in this context.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The part of a text or statement around a word or passage that helps fix its meaning.
  2. The circumstances in which something happens; a setting: in a historical context.

Word family

  • contextless
  • contextual
  • contextually
  • context-free
  • text
  • textile
  • texture
  • pretext

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press