endure

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English enduren, borrowed from Old French endurer (“to harden; to bear”),^[2][3][4] from Latin indūrō (“to make hard”),^[3][2][5] formed from Latin in- + dūrō (“to harden, last”), from dūrus (“hard”).^[2][4][6] In Late Latin the verb meant "to harden (the heart) against",^[4][2] and Merriam-Webster posits a Vulgar Latin sense "to last, continue".^[7] Anglo-Norman endurer already meant "to bear, suffer" and "to last" in the 1120s.^[8] Barnhart suggests that dūrus is related to Sanskrit दारुण (dāruṇá, “hard, rough”) and Ancient Greek δόρυ (dóru, “wood”);^[4] the AHD refers it to Proto-Indo-European *deru-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To undergo or bear continuous pain or hardship, 1340, in Richard Rolle's Pricke of Conscience.^[5][9] Barnhart dates the word to about 1380,^[4] Dictionary.com to 1275–1325.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense "to harden" came into English too: the Wycliffite Bible of about 1384 used it for making hard or callous, a sense that died out around 1600.^[5][11] Chaucer has the intransitive "to last, continue to exist" (about 1386),^[5] and Lydgate used it in 1413 of things that bear strain or wear without damage.^[5] The sense "to put up with, tolerate" is from 1477, in Caxton.^[5][11] Endurance followed in 1494.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to bear; to undergo; to sustain; to support".^[12]

Timeline

• 1340 – to undergo or bear hardship.^[5]
• c. 1384 – to harden (obsolete by 1600).^[5]
• c. 1386 – to last (Chaucer).^[5]
• 1413 – of things, to withstand strain.^[5]
• 1477 – to tolerate (Caxton).^[5]
• 1494 – endurance.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To go through hardship or pain without giving way: the crew endured weeks of storms.
2. To bear with patience; tolerate: I can't endure his complaining.
3. To last, continue to exist: the friendship endured for decades.

Word family

• endurer
• unendured
• endurable

Related words

• endurance
• enduring
• enduro
• duress
• durable
• during
• duration
• obdurate
• indurate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.