contradictory

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin contrādictōrius (“containing a contradiction or objection”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} which the OED takes from Latin contrādictor (“one who contradicts”)^[2] and Etymonline and Klein from contrādictus, the past participle of contrādīcō (“to speak against”),^[3][4][8] from contrā (“against”) and dīcō (“to say, speak”), from Proto-Indo-European *deik- (“to show”).^[3] The OED compares Middle French contradictoire, used by Oresme in the 14th century.^[2] It belongs with contradict and contradiction.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun in logic, a contradictory proposition: about 1400, in the Testament of Love,^[2][5][8] which the MED dates to about 1385 and attributes to Thomas Usk.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a term of logic,^[8][5] and Merriam-Webster also dates the noun to the 14th century.^[6] The adjective appears in 1533, in Thomas More, for statements that are mutually opposed and cannot be true together;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1530s.^[3] Bacon used it in 1605 for denying that a statement is wholly true,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "opposite to; inconsistent with".^[10] Later uses widened it to things of opposite tendency or effect (1736) and to something inconsistent in itself (1868),^[2] and in 1891 it was first used of a person given to contradicting others.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – noun, a contradictory proposition.^[2][9]
• 1533 – adjective, mutually opposed, inconsistent.^[2]
• 1605 – denying that a statement is wholly true.^[2]
• 1736 – of opposite character or effect.^[2]
• 1840 – noun, the opposite, the contrary.^[2]
• 1868 – inconsistent in itself.^[2]
• 1891 – of a person, given to contradiction.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Opposed to each other or inconsistent, so that both cannot be true: The witnesses gave contradictory accounts of the crash.^[11][6][2]
2. Containing elements that do not fit together: a contradictory policy.^[2][6]
3. Inclined to argue or to contradict others: a contradictory old man.^[11][6][2]
4. In logic, of two propositions, so related that one must be true and the other false.^[11][6]

Noun

1. In logic, a proposition that contradicts another.^[6][2][5]
2. Something opposite or contrary to another thing.^[6][2]

Word family

• contradictorily
• contradictoriness
• intercontradictory
• noncontradictory
• uncontradictory
• self-contradictory

Related words

• contradict
• contradiction
• contrary
• diction
• dictate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins