efficient

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪˈfɪʃ.ənt/, /əˈfɪʃ.ənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English efficient, borrowed from Old French efficient and directly from Latin efficiēns (“effective, producing, active”), the present participle of efficere (“to work out, accomplish”),^[2][3] from ex- (“out”) and facere (“to do”).^[2] It is related to effect and efficacy.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Producing an immediate effect, causing: about 1380 in Chaucer's Boethius according to Barnhart, 1398 in the OED, chiefly in efficient cause, the cause that makes a thing what it is.^[3][5][4]

Semantic evolution

The current sense, productive or competent, working well with little waste of effort, is from 1787.^[2][5][4] In the 19th century a volunteer soldier qualified for service was an efficient (1864).^[5] Efficiency is from 1593, in Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – causing an effect.^[3]
• 1593 – efficiency.^[3]
• 1787 – competent, productive.^[2][5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Working or producing well with little waste of time, money or effort.
2. Of a person, capable and competent.
3. (philosophy) Producing a direct effect; causing.

Word family

• efficiently
• cost-efficient
• nonefficient
• superefficient
• efficient cause

Related words

• effect
• effective
• effector
• effectual
• effectuate
• efficacious
• efficacity
• efficacy
• efficiency
• deficient
• sufficient

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press