enjoy

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɪnˈdʒɔɪ/, /en-/, US /enˈdʒɔɪ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English enjoien, borrowed from Old French enjoir (“to give joy; to take delight in”),^[2][3][4] from en- (“make”) and joir (“to enjoy”),^[2][3] from Latin gaudēre (“to rejoice”),^[2][4] through Vulgar Latin *gaudīre.^[5] Hoad and the SOED also allow Old French enjoier “to give joy to”, from en- and joie, the source of joy.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Intransitive, “to be glad, rejoice”: about 1380^[8] or 1384, in the Wycliffe Bible.^[3] Trench notes that in Wycliffe's time enjoy was not yet distinguished from rejoice.^[9]

Semantic evolution

“To have the use or benefit of”, as of property, is from the early 15th century^[2] (about 1460 in the OED),^[8] replacing native brook in this sense.^[2] The transitive “to take pleasure in” is from the mid-15th century,^[2] 1462 in the OED.^[8][10] “To make happy” was used from 1484 and is obsolete.^[8] The sense “to have sexual relations with” a woman is from the 1590s.^[2][8] To enjoy oneself is by 1708,^[2] and the bare imperative enjoy! is originally North American, from the mid-20th century.^[7] The word tends to lose its connection with pleasure: from 1577 it could be used of something not pleasant,^[8][10] and Wright's dialect dictionary records to enjoy bad health widely in the north and west of England.^[11][2]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – to rejoice.^[8][3]
• c. 1460 – to have the use of.^[8]
• 1462 – to take pleasure in.^[8][10]
• 1577 – of something unpleasant.^[8]
• 1590s – sexual sense.^[2]
• 1708 – enjoy oneself.^[2]
• mid-20th century – imperative enjoy!.^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To take pleasure or satisfaction in.
2. To have the use or benefit of: to enjoy good health.
3. (reflexive) To have a good time.

Word family

• enjoyable
• enjoyably
• enjoyer
• enjoyableness
• enjoyingly
• enjoyment
• reenjoy
• unenjoyed

Related words

• joy
• rejoice
• jewel
• gaudy

Usage notes

In English dialects from Durham to Somerset enjoy meant “to endure, experience”, especially in to enjoy bad health or to enjoy poor health.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
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. ^ 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)