enumerate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ēnumerō (“to count out, reckon up”),^[2][3][4] from the past participle ēnumerātus^[5][3][4] or the participial stem ēnumerāt-,^[2][6] with the English ending -ate.^[3][7] The Latin verb is formed from ē- (“out”), a form of ex-, and numerō (“to count”),^[2][5][3] from numerus (“number”), the source of number.^[2][5][8] Ayto thinks that the Latin noun may be related to Ancient Greek νέμω (némō, “to deal out, distribute”), with nemesis and nomad,^[8] and the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *nem-,^[9] while Merriam-Webster's etymology points to nimble.^[4] Middle English had a similar annumerate, from the early 15th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To ascertain the number of, to count: Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1616,^[4] in line with the early 17th-century date of the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[7][6] The OED's first quotation for the verb, from A. Leighton, is from before 1649,^[2] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com have the 1640s.^[5][10] The noun enumeration is older, from the 16th century.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word moved from counting to naming: Etymonline derives "mention in detail, recapitulate" from the sense "to count",^[5] and the OED remarks that listing things separately, as if to count them, became the more usual meaning.^[2] Johnson (1755) holds both together, "to reckon up singly; to count over distinctly; to number".^[12] An English adjective, used like the later enumerated, lasted from 1646 to 1711.^[2] Census-taking gave the word a more official use, with enumerator for a census employee from the mid-19th century,^[7][4] and in Canada it now also means to prepare or enter names on a list of voters.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1616 – to ascertain the number of, to count.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from before 1649,^[2] and Etymonline has the 1640s.^[5]
• 1646 – adjective, equivalent to enumerated (obsolete after 1711).^[2]
• 1653 – with a clause as object, in a letter of Oliver Cromwell (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1717 – perhaps to bestow abundantly (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1876 – in grammar, to qualify numerically (rare).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To name or mention one by one; to list: The report enumerates the committee's objections.^[14][9][4]
2. To determine the number of; to count, especially to make a census of a population.^[14][9][4]
3. In Canada, to enter names on a list of voters, or to prepare the voters' list for an area.^[14][13]

Word family

• enumeration
• enumerator
• enumerative

Related words

• numeral
• numerous
• numerical
• numerate
• denumerable
• nemesis
• nomad
• nimble

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Toronto: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins