edict

Etymology

The earliest form is inherited from Middle English edit,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French edit, from the Latin noun below.^[5][3][4][6] The spelling edict, at first edycte, restored the Latin form in the late 15th century,^[2][6] when the word was borrowed again borrowed from Latin ēdictum (“proclamation, ordinance, edict”),^[2][7] first recorded in Caxton's translation of Cato in 1483, and replaced the older form.^[3] The Latin noun is the neuter past participle of ēdīcō (“to publish, proclaim, declare”),^[8][2][3][7] formed from ē- (“out”), a form of ex-, and dīcō (“to say”),^[8][2][9] from Proto-Indo-European *deik- (“to show, pronounce solemnly”).^[8][2] It is related to diction, dictionary and dictate;^[10] Ayto stresses that the resemblance to edit is pure coincidence.^[10] Weekley compares verdict.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An order proclaimed by a ruler or other authority, having the force of law: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, in the form edit.^[5][4] Etymonline dates this form to the late 13th century,^[2] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1250–1300.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its central meaning of a proclamation with the force of law since Middle English.^[5][12] The Shorter Oxford notes its historical use for the edicts of the Roman praetors and emperors and of the French kings.^[12] In the 16th and 17th centuries it was stressed on the last syllable.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as a proclamation of command or prohibition, a law that has been made public.^[13] It widened to any authoritative order or command,^[14][15] and in Scotland it named a writ by which all concerned were summoned, by proclamation at the market cross or church door, to appear in a case (recorded from 1876).^[5] A verb edict, to decree, borrowed from French, was used from 1652 but is obsolete.^[5]

Timeline

• 1297 – edit, a proclamation having the force of law.^[5][4]
• 1483 – the restored spelling edict, in Caxton.^[3][2]
• 1652 – verb, to publish a law, to decree (obsolete).^[5]
• 1876 – Scottish, a writ summoning those concerned by public proclamation.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An official order or proclamation issued by a sovereign, government or other authority, with the force of law: The governor's edict closed every tavern after midnight.^[14][15][5]
2. Any formal or authoritative command: Her mother's edict was that homework came before television.^[14][15]

Word family

• edictal
• edictally

Related words

• diction
• dictate
• dictum
• verdict

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d 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)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster