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enjoy

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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“to take pleasure in” is from the mid-15th century,[2] 1462 in the OED.[8][10] “To make happy” was used from 1484 and is obsolete.[8] The sense “to have sexual relations with” a woman is from the 1590s.[2][8] To enjoy oneself is by 1708,[2] and the bare imperative enjoy!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

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)