deter

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēterreō (“to frighten from, discourage from”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from dē- (“away, from”) and terreō (“to frighten”).^[2][3][5][7] The OED notes a rare Old French deterrer, which does not seem to have influenced the English word.^[2] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *tros- (“to make afraid”),^[3] and Ayto to an Indo-European base meaning "shake", which also gave tremble and tremor.^[8] The same Latin verb is the source of terror, terrible, terrific and terrify.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To discourage and turn aside, or restrain, by fear: 1578, in John Lyly's Euphues.^[2][9] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to about 1547,^[7] Barnhart to 1579^[4] and Etymonline to the 1570s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the first the verb covered both restraint by fear and restraint by any consideration of consequences;^[2] Etymonline dates the wider sense, to stop someone from acting by any countervailing motive, to the 1590s,^[3] and the construction with from, deterring someone from a place, purpose or action, is recorded from 1593, in Hooker.^[2] A sense "to terrify, alarm" was used from 1595 to 1635.^[2][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to discourage from any thing; to fright from any thing", and in 1773 as "to discourage by terrour".^[10] The noun and adjective deterrent followed in 1829 and deterrence in 1861.^[4] With a thing rather than a person as object, "to prevent or inhibit", as in deterring rust, is recorded from 1961, in Webster's Third.^[2][7]

Timeline

• c. 1547 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.^[7]
• 1578 – to discourage or restrain by fear, in Lyly's Euphues.^[2]
• 1593 – with from, to deter someone from an action.^[2]
• 1595–1635 – to terrify, alarm (obsolete).^[2][9]
• 1829 – deterrent.^[4]
• 1861 – deterrence.^[4]
• 1961 – to prevent or inhibit something.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To discourage someone from acting, or turn them aside, by fear, doubt or thought of the consequences: The high fence deterred the boys from climbing into the yard.^{[11][7][2][6]}
2. To prevent something from happening, or inhibit it: a coating to deter corrosion.^[11][7][2]

Word family

• determent
• deterrable
• deterrer
• deterrability
• undeterring
• undeterred

Related words

• deterrent
• deterrence
• terror
• terrible
• terrify
• terrific
• tremble

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins