endurance

Etymology

It is formed from English endure + -ance,^[2][3][4] or, according to Barnhart, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English, borrowed from Middle French endurance;^[5][6][7] it was formerly also spelt with an initial i.^[7][6] The verb is enduren, from Old French endurer (“to make hard; to bear, tolerate”) (12th century),^[3][2][8] from Latin indūrō (“to make hard”), in Late Latin "to harden (the heart)",^[3][5][8] formed on dūrus (“hard”).^[2][8] Etymonline and the AHD trace the adjective to Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“to be firm, solid”).^[3][8] In Anglo-Norman, the verb endurer is recorded from 1121–25, with senses including to bear, to hold out and to last.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Continued existence in time, the power of lasting: before 1513, in Robert Fabyan's New Cronycles of Englande and Fraunce.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to 1494, and Etymonline, Dictionary.com and the Shorter Oxford to the late 15th century.^[5][3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense now most common, the bearing of pain or hardship and the power to do so, appears in the 17th century: 1600 in the OED's dating,^[2][10] the 1660s in Etymonline.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave first "continuance, lastingness" and then "patience; the act of supporting; sufferance".^[11] The concrete sense, a hardship that has to be endured, is recorded from about 1555,^[2] and Richard Knolles used the word in 1610 for captivity, a sense taken from durance.^[2] Of things, the power of holding out under strain, as of steel, dates from 1890,^[2] and the capacity of a vehicle or vessel to keep operating falls in the same period.^[10][12] The word is often used before another noun, as in endurance test.^[12]

Timeline

• 1494 – first recorded, in Barnhart.^[5]
• a1513 – continued existence in time; the power of lasting.^[2]
• a1555 – a hardship endured.^[2]
• 1600 – the bearing of pain or hardship; patience.^[2][10]
• 1610 – captivity (obsolete).^[2]
• 1890 – of things, the capacity to withstand strain.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The ability to keep going through pain, hardship or long effort: Marathon runners need great endurance.
2. The act or fact of bearing something unpleasant; patience.
3. The ability of a thing to last, or of a machine or vehicle to keep operating; duration.
4. (archaic) Something endured; a hardship.

Related words

• endure
• durable
• duration
• durance
• obdurate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster