element

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈel.ɪ.mənt/, /ˈel.ə.mənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English element, borrowed from Old French element and directly from Latin elementum (“rudiment, first principle”),^[2][3][4] which translated Greek Ancient Greek στοιχεῖον (stoikheîon, “step, component part”).^[2][5][6] The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the four substances, earth, water, air and fire, thought to make up all things: about 1300.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The simplest part of a complex substance is from the late 14th century (about 1386 in the OED).^[2][7] The idea that each kind of creature lived naturally in one of the four elements gave the sense “natural environment”, as in the phrase in one's element, from the 1590s.^[2][8] In earlier English the air was often “the element”, as in the Rheims version of Matthew 16:3.^[9] The plural, the forces of the weather, is from the 1550s.^[2] The bread and wine of the Eucharist are “elements” from 1593.^[7] The modern chemical sense is from 1813, in Humphry Davy's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry.^[3][2][7]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – one of the four elements.^[2][3]
• c. 1386 – a component part.^[7][2]
• 1550s – the elements, the weather.^[2]
• 1590s – one's natural environment.^[2]
• 1593 – the bread and wine of the Eucharist.^[7]
• 1813 – a chemical element.^[3][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A basic part of something complex.
2. (chemistry) A substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical means.
3. A small group within a larger group, often disapproved of: the criminal element.
4. (plural) The forces of the weather.
5. (plural) The basic principles of a subject.
6. The wire that heats in an electric heater or kettle.
7. A natural or suitable environment: in one's element.

Word family

• interelement
• microelement
• radioelement
• texel
• thermoelement
• identity element
• major element
• rare earth element

Related words

• elemental
• elementary
• transelement

Usage notes

Element, component, constituent, factor and ingredient all mean one of the parts of a whole, but element often stresses that the part is basic or cannot be reduced further.^[10]

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 i j k l 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. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin