Etymologically
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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
  • 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