Etymologically
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endure

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪnˈdʒʊə(ɹ)/, /ɪnˈdjʊə(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /ɪnˈd(j)ʊɹ/[1]

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

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.