endeavor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English endeveren, also endover,^[2][3] formed from Middle English en- + dever (“duty”),^[4][5][3][6] from the phrase putten in dever (“to make it one's duty”).^[2][5][7] The phrase is a partial translation of Old French mettre en deveir (“to put in duty”),^[7][8] and the OED and Hoad compare French se mettre en devoir (“to make it one's duty (to do something), to set about it”).^[4][9] Dever is from Old French deveir (“duty”),^[10][7] the infinitive "to owe" used as a noun,^[9] from Latin dēbeō (“to owe”),^[7][8][11] the source also of debt and debit.^[8] Etymonline analyses the Latin verb as dē- (“away”) and habeō (“to have”).^[7] Ayto stresses that it is an English creation, not a borrowing from French or Latin: the phrase was fused into a verb in the 14th century.^[8] The noun was apparently formed from the verb, though in the OED's quotations the two appear at the same time.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To exert oneself, as a reflexive verb: about 1400, in the York Mysteries, where the noun, effort or pains taken to reach an object, is also first found.^[4] The MED dates its first quotation, from the York Plays, before 1450,^[2] and Barnhart dates the noun endevour to 1417.^[12][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb was at first reflexive, to endeavour oneself, to exert oneself, a use that lasted until the mid 17th century.^[4][13][9] Trench noted that in the New Testament and the Prayer Book it meant to bend all one's energies to fulfilling a duty, not merely to attempt it, so that Ephesians iv. 3, "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit", is weakened by the modern sense.^[14] The intransitive "to strive, try" is recorded from 1551, and the only modern use, to try to do something, from 1597, in Shakespeare's Richard III.^[4] In the noun, to do one's endeavour, to do all one can, is recorded from about 1500,^[4] and Etymonline dates one's endeavors, one's utmost effort, to the late 15th century.^[7] Hobbes used the noun in 1651 for the Latin conatus, a sense of his philosophy only.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as labour directed to some end.^[15] In Irish English and in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk dialect, endeavour could mean one's utmost, and to endeavour for meant to work hard for (a living); an endeavouring person was industrious.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – reflexive verb, to exert oneself; noun, effort directed to an object.^[4]
• 1417 – the noun endevour.^[12][5]
• 1485 – reflexive, in the Paston letters: to endover themselfs with all there powers.^[2]
• c. 1500 – to do one's endeavour, to do all one can.^[4]
• 1551 – intransitive, to strive, try.^[4]
• 1597 – to try to do something, in Shakespeare's Richard III.^[4]
• 1651 – Hobbes's philosophical sense, conatus (obsolete by 1666).^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson defines the noun as labour directed to some end.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (formal) To try hard to do something; to strive: She endeavored to finish the report before noon.^[3][17][4]
2. (obsolete, c. 1400–1655) Used reflexively: to exert oneself.^[4][13]

Noun

1. A serious, determined effort to do or reach something: Despite every endeavor, the talks broke down.^[3][17]
2. An activity aimed at a goal; an enterprise: scientific endeavor.^[3][4]
3. (archaic) to do one's endeavor: to do one's utmost.^[4][16]

Word family

• endeavorer

Related words

• devoir
• debt
• debit
• due
• duty

Usage notes

Endeavor is the American spelling, and British English writes endeavour.^[3][17][18] Etymonline notes that the US space shuttle took the British spelling because it was named after HMS Endeavour, Captain Cook's ship.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House