during

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈdʒʊə.rɪŋ/, /ˈdjʊə-/, /ˈdʒɔː-/ (UK); /ˈdʊr.ɪŋ/, /ˈdjʊr-/ (US)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English duryng, earlier durand,^[3][4] the present participle of duren (“to last, endure”) (see dure),^[3][5][6] borrowed from Old French durer (“to last”), from Latin dūrāre (“to harden; to last”), from dūrus (“hard”),^[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“to be firm, solid, steadfast”).^[3][8] Its use as a preposition imitates the Latin ablative absolute, as in dūrante bellō (“while the war lasts”), literally “the war enduring”;^[3][4][9] Hoad derives it from Old French durant,^[10] and Barnhart notes that during gradually replaced both durand and duraunt, the latter borrowed from the French word.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Throughout the continuance of, in the time of (as a preposition c. 1385 in the OED, before 1387 in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon).^[12][11]

Semantic evolution

The participle at first stood before its noun in the Latin manner, so that during the day meant “while the day endures”;^[3][12] once during came before all kinds of nouns it was treated as a preposition of time, and gradually replaced durand.^[11] Johnson (1755) still explained it as “rather a participle from dure”, as in during life, Latin durante vita.^[13] From the late 16th to the late 17th century it was also a conjunction, “while, until”.^[14][12] The adjective during, “lasting, enduring”, recorded from 1398, is now archaic,^[15][16] and the verb dure itself survived only until the 19th century.^[17]

Timeline

• mid-13th century – the verb duren, to last.^[3]
• mid-14th century – durand.^[3][4]
• c. 1385 – preposition, throughout.^[12]
• 1398 – adjective, lasting.^[15]
• 1595 – conjunction, while, until (obsolete).^[12]

Modern meaning

Preposition

1. Throughout the whole duration of: food shortages during the war.
2. At some point in the course of: born during a blizzard.

Related words

• durable
• duration
• endure
• dure
• obdurate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2009), 5th ed., Harlow: Pearson Longman