devise

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English devisen,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French deviser (“to divide, dispose in portions, arrange, plan, contrive”),^[6][7][8][4] from Vulgar Latin *dēvīsō, for *dīvīsō,^[4][5][9] the frequentative of Latin dīvidō (“to divide”).^{[6][7][4][10]} The OED and Klein explain the change of the first vowel as dissimilation in Romance.^[6][9] In Anglo-Norman deviser is recorded from 1113–19, already with the senses to divide, distinguish, decide and arrange or plan.^[11] The OED notes that these senses had developed far in Old French before English took the word, and that French deviser now chiefly means to chat.^[6][7] The legal noun is borrowed from Old French devise (“division; will, testament”),^[3][9][10] from Medieval Latin dīvīsa, used for dīvīsiō (“division”) in the sense of a division of goods by will;^[6][10] it is the same word as device, its spelling probably influenced by the verb.^[6][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To plan, contrive or think out something: before 1300, in King Horn.^[6] Barnhart dates the same text to about 1225, with the sense to form or fashion,^[8] and Etymonline dates "to form, fashion" to the early 13th century and "to plan, contrive" to about 1300.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Middle English used the verb in many of its French senses: to divide or distribute (from about 1330), to inspect or look at (MED, from about 1330), to set troops in array, to order or appoint, and to imagine or guess.^[6][2][13] Chaucer used it 123 times and Gower 44, for contriving, composing, imagining, telling and looking.^[14] The legal sense, to give property by will, is recorded from 1395, in the earliest English wills;^[6][7] Weekley saw in it the original sense, a will being a "division" of one's property.^[15] Most of the other senses died out between the 15th and the early 19th century, and the chief one today is planning or inventing something in the mind.^[6][13] The noun, a gift of property by will, followed in 1528.^[6] Johnson (1755) listed the noun and the verb ("to contrive; to form by art; to invent") and cited Skinner's derivation from devisare "to look about".^[16] Weekley called the modern distinction between devise and device artificial.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1300 – to plan, contrive or think out something.^[6] Barnhart dates the first record, in King Horn, to about 1225.^[8]
• c. 1325 – to set in battle array (obsolete).^[6]
• c. 1330 – to divide, distribute (obsolete by 1483); to look at, inspect.^[6][2]
• 1340 – to imagine, conjecture (obsolete by 1814).^[13]
• 1393 – to design or contrive a material thing.^[6]
• 1395 – to give property by will.^[6]
• 1477 – to talk, converse (obsolete by 1614).^[13]
• 1528 – noun, the giving of real property by will.^[6] Etymonline dates the noun to the 1540s.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To work out or plan something in the mind; to contrive or invent: The engineers devised a cheaper way to cool the reactor.^{[17][3][18][6]}
2. In law, to give real property by will.^[17][18][6]
3. (obsolete, 1340–1814) To imagine, suppose or guess.^[17][18][13]
4. (obsolete, c. 1330–1483) To divide or distribute.^[6][12]

Noun

1. In law, the act of giving real property by will.^{[17][18][3][6]}
2. A will, or a clause in a will, that disposes of real property.^[17][18][3]
3. Property given by will.^[18][3]

Word family

• devisable
• deviser
• devisal
• devisee
• devisor

Related words

• divide
• device
• division

Usage notes

In law the verb is now used only of real property, though it was formerly used of any property left by will.^[6][3] Devise, bequeath and give appear together in the set phrase give, devise, and bequeath.^[3] Merriam-Webster also records Devise, foreign exchange, a borrowing from German, where it goes back to French devise "motto".^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin