Etymologically
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creation

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kriˈeɪ.ʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English creacioun,[2][3] borrowed from Old French creacion (“creation, a coming into being”) (14th century, modern création),[2][4] from Latin creātiō (“a creating, producing; in classical use, an election, appointment”),[2][3][5] a noun of action from the past participle stem of creāre “to make, bring forth, produce”,[2][3] the source of create,[5] from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to grow”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of creating or causing to exist: 1393 in the OED,[6] the late 14th century in Etymonline, also a created thing.[2]

Semantic evolution

The investing of a person with a title or dignity, as the creation of a peer, is from 1460.[6] The creation of the world, as a point in time, is from 1593,[6][4] and that which God has created, the universe and all in it, from the 1610s (1611 in the OED).[2][6] The native Old English word in the biblical sense was frumsceaft.[2] An original product of human imagination or skill is from 1605,[6] and of costumes, desserts and the like, after French, by the 1870s.[2] The formation of a business company is from 1898.[6] Phrases such as all creation and in creation are used as intensives from 1825.[6]

Timeline

  • 1393 – the act of creating.[6]
  • 1460 – investiture with a title.[6]
  • 1593 – the beginning of the world.[6]
  • 1605 – a product of human skill.[6]
  • 1611 – the created world.[6]
  • 1870s – a fashion creation.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The act of creating, or the state of having been created.
  2. Something created, especially an original product of imagination or skill: the chef's latest creation.
  3. The world and everything in it; all living things.
  4. the Creation: God's making of the world, as described in the Bible.
  5. The act of investing a person with a new title or rank.

Word family

  • creational
  • anticreation
  • creationism
  • re-creation
  • creation science
  • create
  • creative
  • creativity
  • creator
  • creatural
  • creature
  • creature comforts
  • creaturely

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 e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press