document

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈdɒk.jə.mənt/, US /ˈdɑː.kjə.mənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English document, borrowed from Old French document (“lesson, written evidence”),^[2][3] and directly from Latin documentum (“example, proof, lesson”),^[2][3] in Medieval Latin “official written instrument”,^[2][4] from docēre “to show, teach”^[2][3] and the suffix -ment.^[3][4] Docēre is the causative of decēre “to be fitting”, from Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“to take, accept”).^[2] It is related to doctor, doctrine and docile.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Teaching, instruction, or a doctrine: the early 15th century in Etymonline and before 1425 in Barnhart,^[2][3] about 1450 in the OED, a sense now obsolete.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It then meant a lesson or warning (1549) and evidence or proof (1459).^[5] Trench notes that it was once used of moral proof or instruction, as when Raleigh wrote of people stoned to death “as a document unto others”.^[6] The modern sense, something written that gives information or evidence, is from 1727, or the early 18th century in Etymonline,^[3][2][5] which led to “any paper bearing writing”.^[2] The verb first meant to teach (1648),^[5][3] and “to prove with documents” is from 1711, before the noun's modern sense was common.^[3][5] A computer file of text is a later use recorded by Collins and MWU.^[7][4]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – teaching, instruction.^[3]
• 1459 – evidence, proof.^[5]
• 1648 – verb, to teach.^[5]
• 1711 – verb, to prove with documents.^[5][3]
• 1727 – a written paper giving evidence.^[3][5]
• 1754 – documentation.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A piece of paper with written or printed information, especially an official one.
2. A computer file containing text.
3. Anything, such as a photograph or recording, that gives evidence.

Verb

1. To record something in writing, film or photographs.
2. To support a claim with evidence or references.

Word family

• documental
• documenter
• documentable
• documentarian
• documentary
• nondocumented
• undocumented
• redocument

Related words

• docent
• docile
• doctor
• doctorate
• doctrinaire
• doctrinal
• doctrine
• indoctrinate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins