contradiction

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English contradiccioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French contradiction^[4][5][6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin contrādictiō (“a reply, objection, counterargument”),^[5][8][9] a noun of action from contrādīcō (“to speak against”),^[4][5][8] from contrā (“against”) and dīcō (“to say, speak”),^[5] from Proto-Indo-European *deik- (“to show”).^[5] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the first half of the 12th century,^[10] and the French one from the 12th century.^[4] Old English had used wiðcwedennes as a loan translation of the Latin noun.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of speaking against something; opposition, gainsaying: about 1382, in Wyclif's translation of the Psalms.^[4] The MED's quotations give it as objection, opposition, or hostility, as in withouten contradiccioun, without objection.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word moved from opposition in speech or action to the logical idea of saying the opposite.^[4][5] About 1400 it was used of a statement whose parts deny each other.^[4][5] In 1526 it is first recorded for affirming the contrary of what has been said, that is, denial.^[4] In the late 16th and early 17th centuries it was extended to opposition or inconsistency between things (before 1571), to logical incongruity (1613) and to a contradictory act or fact (1608).^[4][5] Johnson (1755) still gave "verbal opposition; controversial assertion" as the first sense.^[11] The phrase contradiction in terms is dated 1705 by Etymonline but 1795 by the OED.^[5][4] It replaced contradiction in the adject (1654–83), after the Latin contradictio in adiecto.^[4] Pope applied the word to a person made up of contradictory qualities (1735),^[4] and in 19th-century logic it named one of the four kinds of opposition, as in the law of contradiction.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1382 – opposition, gainsaying.^[4]
• c. 1400 – a statement whose parts are inconsistent.^[4][5]
• 1526 – denial, assertion of the contrary.^[4]
• before 1571 – variance, inconsistency between things.^[4]
• 1608 – a contradictory act or fact.^[4]
• 1613 – logical inconsistency.^[4]
• 1654 – contradiction in the adject (obsolete by 1683).^[4]
• 1705 – contradiction in terms.^[5]
• 1725 – a statement denying another.^[4]
• 1735 – a person of contradictory qualities.^[4]
• 1850 – logic, one of the four kinds of opposition.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of contradicting; denial of what someone has said: The manager would not accept contradiction from her staff.^[12][13][9]
2. Opposition or gainsaying.^[9][3][4]
3. A conflict or inconsistency between facts, ideas or events; a discrepancy.^[12][13][3]
4. A statement that contradicts itself, often in the phrase a contradiction in terms.^[13][14][4]
5. A person or thing with conflicting qualities.^[13][4]
6. Logic: a statement that is false in every case.^[13]

Word family

• intercontradiction
• noncontradiction
• self-contradiction
• law of contradiction

Related words

• contradict
• contradictory
• contra
• diction
• verdict
• dictate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press