determinant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dētermināns (“determining”), the present participle of dēterminō (“to enclose, bound, set limits to”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from dē- (“off”) and terminō (“to mark the end or boundary”), from terminus (“end, limit”).^[3] It is related to determine.^[3][7] Compare French déterminant, recorded in Trévoux's dictionary of 1752.^[2] The Shorter Oxford takes the noun as partly translating Medieval Latin dētermināns as well.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, determining, that determines: 1610, in W. Folkingham's Feudigraphia;^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to about 1600, and Dictionary.com to 1600–10.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a determining factor or agent, something that fixes or conditions an outcome, is recorded from 1686, in J. Goad's Astro-meteorologica,^[2][5] and Etymonline dates it to the 1680s.^[3] In the 19th century it took on technical senses: in mathematics from 1843, in a title by Cayley, the value computed from a square array or matrix of quantities;^[2] in philology from 1870, the element of a compound that limits or qualifies the other;^[2] and in logic from 1887.^[2] In 1864 it was used, after medieval Latin, for a determining bachelor in the history of the universities;^[2][8] from 1893 it appears in translations of Weismann for the hypothetical units of the germ-plasm thought to determine the development of cells.^[2]

Timeline

• 1610 – adjective, determining.^[2]
• 1686 – noun, a determining factor or agent.^[2][5]
• 1843 – in mathematics, the determinant of a square matrix.^[2]
• 1864 – in university history, a determining bachelor.^[2]
• 1870 – in philology, a limiting or qualifying element.^[2]
• 1893 – in biology, a hypothetical unit of heredity in Weismann's theory.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A factor or circumstance that decides or strongly influences the nature or outcome of something: Income is a major determinant of health.^[9][5][2]
2. (mathematics) A value computed from a square matrix by summing products of its elements, used in solving simultaneous equations and in vector work.^[9][2]
3. (biology) In Weismann's theory of heredity, a hypothetical unit of the germ-plasm thought to fix the development of a cell or group of cells.^[2]

Adjective

1. Serving to determine; determinative.^[9][5][2]

Word family

• determinantal

Related words

• determine
• determination
• determinative
• terminus
• term

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 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. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins