correlate

Etymology

The noun is probably a back-formation from correlation and correlative,^[2][3][4][5] or, as the OED explains it, a compound of cor- and relātum (“a thing referred, related”), suggested by the older English words; there may also have been New Latin *correlātum in philosophical use.^[6][7] The verb (1742) is a back-formation from correlation or a verbal use of the noun,^[5][7][8] and the adjective is formed in the same way on relātus, the past participle of referō (“to bring back, refer”).^[6] Correlation (1561) is from French corrélation, formed from cor- (“together”) and relation,^[5][7][6] and Hoad traces it and correlative to scholastic Latin correlātiō and correlātīvus (13th century).^[9] Skeat took the verb as coined from Latin cor- and relate.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of two things so related that one implies or completes the other: 1643, in Charles Herle's Answer to Ferne's Reply.^[6][3][7] Johnson (1755) illustrated the noun with a passage from South's Sermons on a relation that ends “for want of a correlate”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The noun soon widened to either term of any relation (1644), and later meant an analogue (1821, in De Quincey; rare), a correlative word in grammar (1829) and a correlative force in physics (1862).^[6] The verb, first intransitive (to stand in mutual relation, 1742, in Fielding's Joseph Andrews), was defined by Johnson as having a reciprocal relation, “as father and son”.^[6][11] The transitive sense, to bring into correlation or show the relation between, appears in 1849 in Murchison's Siluria, a work of geology,^[6][5] and geologists still correlate strata of the same horizon.^[3] From 1862 the passive was used of structures or characteristics that are regularly connected, especially in biology.^[6]

Timeline

• 1643 – noun, either of two things that imply each other.^[6][3][7]
• 1644 – noun, either term of a relation.^[6]
• 1742 – verb, intransitive, to stand in mutual relation, in Fielding's Joseph Andrews.^[6][3][5]
• 1821 – noun, an analogue (rare).^[6]
• 1849 – verb, transitive, to bring into correlation.^[6][5]
• 1850 – adjective, mutually related.^[6]
• 1862 – passive, to be regularly connected, especially in biology.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To have a mutual or reciprocal relationship; to vary together: Exam results correlate closely with attendance.^[12][3][6]
2. To establish or show a correlation between things: The study correlated diet with heart disease.^[12][6][3]
3. (geology) To establish that rock layers or fossils belong to the same stratigraphic level.^[3]

Noun

1. Either of two things so related that one implies or complements the other.^[12][3][6]
2. (rare) A corresponding thing; an analogue.^[6][8]

Adjective

1. Mutually related; correlated.^[12][6][3]

Word family

• correlatable
• correlator
• intercorrelate
• noncorrelating

Related words

• correlative
• relate
• relation

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins