derange

Etymology

It is borrowed from French déranger (“to disarrange”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Old French desrengier (“to leave the lines; to disarrange”),^[2][3][4][7] recorded from about 1100 of leaving military lines or ranks,^[2] formed from des- (from Latin dis-) and rengier (“to put in line”),^[3][6][2] from reng (“line, row”),^[3][8][7] the source of rank and range.^[7][2] Etymonline takes the last from Frankish *hring or another Germanic source, Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“circle, ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to turn, bend”).^[3][8] The Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from 1155, meant to force to break ranks, to fall out of line, or to run wild.^[9] Barnhart thought that the English verb might have been borrowed under the influence of derangement, dated there to 1737,^[4] but the revised OED has the verb earlier, from 1729.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To disturb the order of something; to disarrange: 1729, in E. Strother's work on epidemical fevers, according to the OED's revised entry of 2023.^[2] Older dictionaries date the word much later: Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1769,^[7] Etymonline and Barnhart to 1776, in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In French the verb moved from military lines to forcing a person out of place (before 1693), making something work abnormally (late 17th century), driving someone mad (1713) and bothering someone (1752), and English took these senses over in much the same order.^[2] It was still felt as a French word in the mid-18th century: Weekley notes that Johnson left it out for that reason.^[10] The mental sense began with a disturbed reason or mind, in a phrase like deranged mind, parallel to disordered mind.^[10][2] The OED finds this from 1755, against Etymonline's date of about 1790 and Barnhart's 1825, in Southey.^[2][3][4] In its general sense the word has largely given way to disarrange, according to Weekley.^[10] In the American army in 1782–83 derange also meant to remove an officer from his post, a use found in Washington's letters.^[2]

Timeline

• 1729 – to disturb or destroy the arrangement of something.^[2]
• 1745 – to disrupt the working of a system or process.^[2]
• 1755 – to disturb a person's mind or reason.^[2]
• 1782 – in the American army, to remove an officer from a post (obsolete by 1783).^[2]
• 1828 – to bother a person or interrupt an activity.^[2] The Shorter Oxford dates this sense to the mid-19th century.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To disturb the order or arrangement of something; to throw into confusion or to disarrange: The storm deranged the whole shipping timetable.^[12][7][2]
2. To disturb the working of something: A small fault can derange the entire circuit.^[12][7][2]
3. To make someone insane or cause a mental disorder, now mostly in the form deranged.^[12][11][2]
4. To interrupt or bother someone.^[11][2]

Word family

• derangement
• derangeable
• deranger

Related words

• range
• rank
• arrange
• disarrange

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 o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins