contrive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English contreven, also controven,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French controver (“to find out, imagine, invent”),^[4][5][6][2] now controuver,^[4][6] whose stressed stem was contreuve-.^[4][7][8] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1113–19, with the senses "to invent", "to devise", "to compose" and "to plot".^[9] Most dictionaries derive the Old French verb from Late Latin contropō (“to compare”),^{[5][3][10][11][12][13][6][8]} which they date as Late or Medieval Latin, formed from com- (“together”) and tropus (“figure of speech, song”),^{[14][10][13][8]} from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “turn, manner, style”).^[3][13] Merriam-Webster and Hoad mark the link with the Latin noun as uncertain,^[12][6] and the OED instead derives it from con- and trover (“to find”), from Latin turbō (“to disturb, stir up”), so that the French verb would match conturbō.^[4] Skeat and Klein also analyse it with that second element, the source of trover.^[15][16] The shifting stress of the French verb explains the two Middle English forms, and the one in -o- lasted to the 16th century.^[4] From the 15th century the one in -e- became contrive,^[4][6][3] a change the OED, Hoad and Barnhart call unexplained,^[4][6][3] and which Ayto thinks perhaps due to Scottish pronunciation.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To invent or devise a plan with ingenuity, and especially to plot something evil: about 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle.^[4] Barnhart dates the same text before 1338,^[3] and Etymonline says the early 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Ayto traces the meaning from comparing by a figure of speech, through "imagine" in Old French, to "devise".^[14] The OED notes that in French the sense of inventing cleverly became inventing falsely, as Cotgrave's dictionary shows, while in English a good or neutral sense has always remained alongside the bad one.^[4] Middle English applied the verb to material things and writings as well (1377, in Langland),^[4] and to finding out an answer (1393, in Gower), a sense obsolete in the standard language by 1600 but still recorded in Wright's dictionary for Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Herefordshire.^[4][17] The sense "to manage to bring about" is recorded in Palsgrave (1530),^[4] and since Dryden (1697) it has been used ironically of bringing about something unwanted.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave "to plan out; to excogitate", and also "to wear away", which belongs to an unrelated verb.^[18][4] In Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire contrive or controive was also a mild curse, like confound.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – to devise; especially to plot evil.^[4]
• 1377 – to design a structure or literary work.^[4]
• 1393 – to find out, to understand (obsolete by 1600, later dialect).^[4][17]
• c. 1400 – to make up or fabricate (obsolete by 1500).^[4]
• c. 1440 – intransitive, to plot or conspire (obsolete by 1642).^[4]
• 15th century – the spelling contrive.^[4][6][3]
• 1530 – to succeed in bringing about.^[4]
• 1577 – to bring by skill into a place or form (obsolete by 1701).^[4]
• 1627 – the derivative contrivance, an artifice or trick.^[3]
• 1697 – ironically, to bring about something unwanted.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To plan or make with ingenuity; to devise or invent: She contrived a shelter from two oars and a sail.^[10][12][4]
2. To plot something bad: The courtiers contrived the minister's fall.^[10][12][4]
3. To manage to bring something about or to do something, often by a trick: He contrived to meet her at the station.^[10][12][4]
4. Ironically, to manage to do something unwanted: She contrived to lose the tickets twice.^[4][8]
5. (dialect) To find out or imagine.^[17][12][8]
6. (obsolete, 1440–1642) To plot or conspire.^[4][18]
7. (obsolete, 1577–1701) To bring something by skill into a place or form.^[4][12]

Word family

• contriver
• contrivable
• uncontriving
• precontrive
• contrived
• contrivance

Related words

• trope
• trover
• retrieve
• contraption

Usage notes

An obsolete verb contrive, to wear away or to spend time, has a separate source, apparently the Latin preterite contrīvī, as in contrite; it is recorded from before 1475 to 1616, for example in Shakespeare's "Please ye we may contrive this afternoon", and may have been confused with this verb by translators.^[4][8][12]

References

1. ^ 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 d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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 z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
17. ^ a b c d 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)
18. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.