danger

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈdeɪn.dʒə/, US /ˈdeɪn.dʒɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English daunger (“power, jurisdiction; liability; reluctance”),^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman daunger, Old French dangier “power, power to harm, mastery”,^[4][2][5] an alteration, influenced by Old French dam “damage”, from Latin damnum, of dongier,^[4][2][3] from Vulgar Latin *dominiārium (“power of a lord”),^[2][4][3] from Latin dominium “sovereignty”,^[2] from dominus (“lord, master”),^[4][6] from domus “house”, from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“house, household”).^[4] It is related to dominion, dame and dungeon.^[2][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Arrogance, insolence”: before 1250 in Barnhart, in a version of the Ancrene Riwle,^[2] the mid-13th century in Etymonline.^[4] The power of a lord or master, jurisdiction, is from before 1225 in the OED,^[8] about 1300 in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the Middle Ages into the 19th century the word meant jurisdiction or power, at first the power of a lord to harm.^[7][6] It also meant difficulty raised, reluctance or coyness, from about 1290,^[8] and liability to loss or punishment from 1377.^[8] The modern sense, risk or peril, came from being in the control of someone or something else; it developed first in French and was in English by the late 14th century,^[4][6] first recorded about 1378 in Piers Plowman.^[2] Old English used pleoh for this, and early Middle English peril.^[4] Johnson in 1755 called the French word “of uncertain derivation” and listed the guesses of Skinner, Ménage and Minsheu.^[9] Dangerous first meant difficult to deal with, haughty, before 1200.^[2][5] The verb, to endanger, is from about 1470 and now archaic.^[8][10]

Timeline

• a. 1225 – a lord's power.^[8]
• a. 1250 – arrogance.^[2]
• c. 1290 – reluctance.^[8]
• 1377 – liability.^[8]
• c. 1378 – risk, peril.^[2]
• 1470 – verb, to endanger.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Exposure to possible harm, injury or loss; peril.
2. Something or someone that may cause harm; a source of risk.
3. (archaic) Power or jurisdiction, especially the power to harm.

Word family

• dangerless

Related words

• dangerous
• dungeon
• domain
• dame
• endanger
• dominion
• dominate

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 k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster