docket

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The revised OED suggests that it may be formed from English dock + -et, from the verb meaning to cut short, if a summary was thought of as cutting something short;^[2] the Shorter Oxford, Hoad, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Etymonline offer the same link with dock as a possibility,^[3][7][8][9] and Skeat thought it apparently allied to that word.^[10] The earliest forms were doggette and dogget,^{[11][9][12][3]} and a common 16th-century spelling was docquet, perhaps echoing the diminutive ending -et or -ette.^[11][13] Weekley derived it from obsolete Italian doghetta, a bendlet in heraldry, a diminutive of doga (“cask stave”), and thought the form influenced by cocket, a customs seal with which it was often paired;^[14][15] other dictionaries do not follow him.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A brief summary or abstract of a statement or account: in the Black Book printed by A. R. Myers, composed before 1477 and surviving in a copy of before 1500.^[2] Barnhart dates the form doggette to before 1483,^[11][13] Etymonline to the mid-15th century,^[9] and Dictionary.com to 1475–85.^[5] An earlier line in the Towneley Plays, composed before 1460, has doket perhaps meaning "rag", which the OED thinks may be a different word, comparing Middle Dutch doec (“cloth”) or the noun dock, a tail.^[2][16]

Semantic evolution

From "summary" the word developed in two directions.^[2][3] In the royal chancery, from 1552, a docket was the abstract of the contents of proposed letters patent written on the monarch's bill,^[2][3] and in law, from before 1578, a register of judicial decisions or a record summarizing the proceedings in a case, especially in the Court of Chancery;^[2][3] Barnhart cites Pepys in 1668–69 for a list of judgments.^[13] Bankruptcy procedure had the phrase to strike a docket from 1768.^[2][3] In American usage the word came to mean the list of cases waiting to be heard, first recorded in 1709 according to Barnhart and Etymonline,^[11][9] and in Aphra Behn before 1689 according to the OED;^[2] by extension it is any agenda, often in the phrase on the docket.^[3][17] The other line led to a note or label giving information about something attached, from 1662,^[2] and so, chiefly in Britain, to a document that goes with a consignment of goods, as the Oxford Dictionary of English explains for the early 18th century.^[8][18] Johnson (1755) defined it both as a direction tied to goods and as a summary of a longer writing.^[19] A customs warrant showing that duty had been paid was a docket from 1687 to 1879, according to the OED,^[2] though Collins still lists it.^[4] In Australia, New Zealand and Ireland a docket is a receipt or invoice (from 1841), and in Irish English a betting slip (1895), with the figurative beaten docket, a lost cause (1974).^[2] In American underworld slang of the early 20th century a docket was a card bearing a printed appeal for alms.^[20] The verb, from 1602, followed the noun's senses: to record a summary of a judgment, to label a document with its contents (1688), to enter a case on a court's list (1722, in Virginia) and, figuratively, to classify (1837).^[2][3]

Timeline

• before 1500 (composed before 1477) – a brief summary or abstract.^[2][11]
• 1552 – an abstract of the contents of proposed letters patent, written on the monarch's bill.^[2]
• before 1578 – a register of judicial decisions; a record summarizing a case.^[2][3]
• 1602 – verb, to record a summary of a legal judgment.^[2]
• 1615 – verb, to provide letters patent with a docket.^[2][12]
• 1662 – a note or label giving information about something attached or enclosed.^[2]
• 1687 – a customs warrant certifying that duty has been paid (obsolete by 1879 in the OED).^[2]
• before 1689 – a list of cases to be heard or tried.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to 1709, in American English.^[11][9]
• 1688 – verb, to label a document or parcel with a summary of its contents.^[2]
• 1722 – verb, to enter a case on the list of those to be heard.^[2]
• 1768 – to strike a docket, in bankruptcy proceedings.^[2]
• 1837 – verb, figuratively, to file or classify.^[2]
• 1841 – in Australian, New Zealand and Irish English, a receipt or invoice.^[2]
• 1895 – in Irish English, a betting slip or lottery ticket.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law, chiefly North American) A list of cases waiting to be heard by a court; a court's caseload: The judge's docket is booked for months.^[18][2][3]
2. A list of matters to be dealt with; an agenda: Tax reform is next on the committee's docket.^[17][3]
3. (chiefly British) A document that accompanies a delivery of goods, listing its contents or delivery instructions, sometimes serving as a receipt.^[4][18][2]
4. (law) An official summary of the proceedings in a court, or a register containing such summaries.^[4][2][12]
5. A label or note attached to a document or package giving information about its contents.^[2][12][21]
6. (Australia, New Zealand and Ireland) A receipt or invoice for goods or services.^[2]
7. (obsolete, before 1500–1858) A brief summary or abstract of a longer writing.^[2][3][19]

Verb

1. To mark a package or document with a note of its contents: The clerk docketed each crate before it was loaded.^[18][2][12]
2. (law, chiefly North American) To enter a case on the list of those to be heard.^[18][2][3]
3. (law) To record a summary of a judgment or proceeding in a register.^[2][12][3]
4. To note down or classify: She docketed the complaint for later.^[2][3]

Word family

• undocketed
• redocket

Related words

• dock
• cocket

Usage notes

The OED records a separate noun docket from a single passage of Robert Greene (before 1592), perhaps meaning the fleshy part of an animal's tail, apparently a mistaken reanalysis of docked.^[2] In Oxfordshire dialect a docket was also a light bill for cutting furze and broom.^[22]

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 u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
18. ^ a b c d e Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
19. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
20. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
21. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
22. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)