courtship

Etymology

It is formed from English court + -ship.^[2][3][4][5] The base noun is from Old French cort (“king's court, princely residence”), from Latin cohors (“enclosed yard, retinue”).^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Behaviour or manners suited to a courtier or a royal court: 1588, in Anthony Munday's translation of Palmerin d'Oliva.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1570s,^[3] and Dictionary.com the word to 1580–90.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Most of the early senses had to do with life at court and are now obsolete: courtesy in general (1594–1719), the courtier's art of diplomacy and flattery (1592–1862), the state of being a courtier (1597, in Romeo and Juliet), an office at court (1613–70), and the paying of ceremonious attentions to a person of rank (1597, in Richard II, to 1764).^[2] From these attentions came the sense of wooing: an instance of it is recorded in 1598, in Rankins's Seven Satires, and the process in 1600, in The Merchant of Venice,^[2][3] the first date that Merriam-Webster gives for the word.^[7] Johnson (1755) still listed "the act of soliciting favour" first, then "the solicitation of a woman to marriage", then "civility; elegance of manners".^[8] By the 1830s it was used of a period in which a couple develop a romantic relationship together with a view to marriage.^[3] The Shorter Oxford records the behaviour of animals before mating from the late 18th century, and the figurative sense of trying to win someone or something over from the early 18th, as in Byron's "in courtship of repose".^[4] In Cumberland dialect courtship and matrimony was a name for the meadowsweet, from the scent of the flower before and after it is bruised.^[9]

Timeline

• 1588 – courtly behaviour, courtliness (obsolete by 1673).^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1570s.^[3]
• 1592 – the art of a courtier; diplomacy, flattery (until 1862).^[2]
• 1594 – courtesy, polite behaviour (until 1719).^[2]
• 1597 – the paying of ceremonious attentions to a person of rank (until 1764).^[2]
• 1598 – an instance or period of wooing.^[2]
• 1600 – the action of wooing.^[2][3]
• early 18th century – the action of seeking to win something over.^[4]
• late 18th century – the behaviour of animals before mating.^[4]
• 1830s – a period in which a couple develop a relationship with a view to marriage.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or period of wooing someone, or of developing a romantic relationship, especially before marriage: They became engaged after a courtship of three years.^[10][7][2]
2. The behaviour of animals that leads up to mating: the courtship dance of the cranes.^[4]
3. The seeking of someone's favour, or an attempt to win someone or something over: the party's courtship of rural voters.^[10][4]
4. (obsolete, 1588–1719) Behaviour suited to a court; courtliness, courtesy.^{[10][7][2][4]}
5. (obsolete, 1592–1862) The art of a courtier; diplomacy and flattery.^[7][2][4]
6. (obsolete, 1597–1764) The paying of ceremonious courtesies, especially to a person of rank.^[7][2][4]

Word family

• courtship display

Related words

• court
• courtly
• courtesy
• courtier
• courting

Usage notes

Trench noted that courtship and courtesy were once used interchangeably, quoting Milton's Iconoclastes: "there will be used no more courtship than he uses".^[11]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker