correct

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəˈrekt/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English correcten,^[2] borrowed from Latin corrēctus (“made straight, amended”),^[3][2] past participle of corrigere (“to make straight, reform”),^[4][3] from com-, perhaps intensive,^[4] and regere (“to lead straight, rule”),^[4][3] from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).^[4] The adjective is borrowed from French correct (“right, proper”),^[4][3] from the same Latin participle.^[3][5] It is related to right, regent and incorrigible.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To set a person right by punishing, to discipline: the mid-14th century.^[4] Barnhart dates the verb 1345–46,^[3] and the OED's first example, “to set right, amend (an error)”, is from 1340.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Of texts, “to bring into agreement with a standard or original” is from the late 14th century.^[4] “To punish for faults” is from 1377,^[8] and the medical sense, to bring the bodily humours into a healthy state, from 1620.^[8] The adjective came later, from French: first in Dryden's writings in 1676,^[3] of literary or artistic style in keeping with an accepted standard,^[8] then “true, accurate, free from error” from 1705,^[8] and of manners and behaviour from about 1800.^[8] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective 1668.^[2] The ideological sense, “conforming to a doctrine”, was used of Maoist China from 1932,^[8] and the elliptical use for “politically correct” in North America from 1973.^[8]

Timeline

• 1340 – verb, to amend an error.^[8]
• mid-14th century – to discipline.^[4]
• 1377 – to punish.^[8]
• late 14th century – to emend a text.^[4]
• 1668 – adjective.^[2]
• 1676 – adjective, of style, in Dryden.^[3][8]
• 1705 – free from error.^[8]
• 1973 – politically correct.^[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To remove the errors from; to mark mistakes in: to correct homework.
2. To set right; to remedy or counteract.
3. To adjust to a required standard.
4. To punish in order to reform.

Adjective

1. Free from error; accurate.
2. Conforming to accepted standards; proper.
3. Conforming to the requirements of a particular ideology: politically correct.

Word family

• correctable
• correctly
• correctness
• corrector
• correctability
• correctingly
• hypercorrect
• incorrect

Related words

• correction
• incorrigible
• right
• regent
• rule
• direct

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 c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press