Etymologically
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equipment

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 18:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪˈkwɪp.mənt/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English equip + -ment,[2] or it is borrowed from French équipement,[2][3][4] from équiper (“to equip”).[4] It superseded the earlier equipage.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1651.[5] In the OED and Etymonline, things used in equipping are from 1717, and the action of equipping from 1748;[6][2] the SOED and NODE put it in the early 18th century.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense, anything used to equip a person or thing, such as furniture, outfit or warlike apparatus, came first.[6][2] The state of being equipped, or the manner of it, is from 1748.[6] The figurative sense, a person's intellectual or mental resources, is from 1841.[6][7] In American use it also means the rolling stock of a railway or other transport system.[7][8]

Timeline

  • 1651 – first known use, in Merriam-Webster.[5]
  • 1717 – things used in equipping.[6][2]
  • 1748 – the action or state of being equipped.[6][2]
  • 1841 – intellectual resources.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The articles or tools needed for a particular purpose; apparatus or gear: sports equipment.
  2. The act of equipping, or the state of being equipped.
  3. The mental and emotional qualities that make up a person's resources.
  4. The rolling stock of a transport system.

Word family

  • reequipment

Usage notes

Equipment, apparatus, gear, outfit, paraphernalia and tackle all name the things needed for a task or journey;[7] apparatus suggests instruments for a technical purpose, and tackle especially fishing equipment.[7]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster