Etymologically
Log in

delay

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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