delay

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /dɪˈleɪ/, /dəˈleɪ/, US /dɪˈleɪ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English deleien, delaien, borrowed from Old French delaier (“to put off”),^[2][3][4] from de- (“away, from”) and laier “to leave, let”, of unknown origin.^[2][3][5] Laier is perhaps a variant of Old French laissier, from Latin laxāre “to slacken”, but Watkins derives it from Frankish *laibjan.^[2] The noun is Old French delai, from the verb.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, to put off or postpone: about 1290 in the OED, before 1300 in Barnhart.^[6][3] The noun, a putting off: before 1250 in Barnhart, 1297 in the OED.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

To hinder or keep waiting for a time is from the late 14th century,^[2] and the intransitive sense “to linger, move slowly” from about 1500.^[2] The fact of being kept waiting, a hindrance to progress, is from 1748 as a noun sense.^[6] In electronics a delay is the time between a signal and its effect, from 1930.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – to postpone.^[6]
• late 14th century – to hinder.^[2]
• c. 1500 – to linger.^[2]
• 1930 – in electronics.^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To put off until later; to postpone.
2. To make someone or something late or slow.
3. To wait or be slow to act.

Noun

1. The act of delaying, or a time of waiting.
2. The time between one event and another.

Word family

• delayer
• delayable
• delayingly
• predelay
• undelaying

Related words

• delayed
• lax

Usage notes

An obsolete verb delay, from French délayer and related to allay, meant to dilute or weaken, as in “wine delayed with water” in Philemon Holland.^[7][4] Trench noted that some editors wrongly changed it to allay, taking it for a misprint.^[7]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker