emphatic

Etymology

The OED, revised in 2014, takes it partly as borrowed from Middle French emphatique (“powerfully and forcibly expressive”), recorded in 1579, and partly as its source, borrowed from Late Latin emphaticus (“forcible, expressive”), used by Jerome in the 4th or 5th century.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary and the Shorter Oxford give only the Latin,^[3][4] and Etymonline and Merriam-Webster derive the word straight from Greek.^[5][6][7] The Latin is from Ancient Greek ἐμφατικός (emphatikós, “forcible, expressive”), a frequent variant of ἐμφαντικός (emphantikós, “expressive”),^[2][5][6] from the stem of ἐμφαίνειν (emphaínein, “to exhibit, display, indicate”),^[2][7][3] which is formed from ἐν (en, “in”) and φαίνειν (phaínein, “to show”),^[7] and is the source of emphasis.^[7][2] Etymonline notes that emphatical is older, from the 1550s in rhetoric and the 1570s for "strongly expressive".^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Forcibly expressive, of language: 1602, in J. Colville's Parænese.^[2][6] Older dictionaries dated the word later: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate to 1635,^[8] and Etymonline and the 1989 edition of the OED to 1708.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

First used of language, the word was extended from 1689 to actions, arguments and qualities, meaning powerful or forceful, and later striking, clear and definite; the OED's first record of this is in Aphra Behn.^[2] From 1760 it described people who speak or gesture with emphasis.^[2] In grammar it meant imparting emphasis from 1689, and of a syllable or word, bearing the stress from 1762, in Thomas Sheridan's lectures on elocution.^[2] From 1855 linguists applied it to a series of pharyngealized or velarized consonants in the Semitic languages.^[2] The noun, an emphatic word or syllable, dates from 1792, and an emphatic consonant from 1859, in a translation of a grammar of Arabic.^[2] Merriam-Webster also uses it for the English tense forms made with do, as in I do agree.^[8]

Timeline

• 1602 – forcibly expressive, of language.^[2][6]
• 1689 – of an action or argument, forceful; in grammar, imparting emphasis.^[2]
• 1760 – of a person, using emphasis in voice, gesture or language.^[2]
• 1762 – of a syllable or word, bearing the stress.^[2]
• 1792 – noun, an emphatic word or syllable.^[2]
• 1855 – of Semitic consonants, pharyngealized or velarized.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Said or done with emphasis; forceful and definite: an emphatic denial.^[10][6][2]
2. Of a person, expressing something with force and conviction: The coach was emphatic that nobody would be dropped.^[2][8]
3. Standing out clearly; striking and decisive: an emphatic win.^[11][10][2]
4. (grammar) Giving emphasis, or bearing the stress: an emphatic pronoun.^[2][10]
5. (phonetics) Of certain consonants in Arabic and other Semitic languages: pharyngealized or velarized.^[2][10]

Noun

1. A word, syllable or phrase that expresses emphasis.^[2]
2. (phonetics) An emphatic consonant.^[2]

Word family

• emphatically
• emphaticalness
• unemphatic

Related words

• emphasis
• emphasise
• emphasize
• emphatical
• phase
• phantasm

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin