estimate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈestɪmət/, /ˈestəmət/ (UK); /ˈestɪmɪt/, /ˈestɪmət/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin aestimatus, the past participle of aestimāre (“to value, appraise”),^[2][3][4] which is also the source of esteem.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, intellectual ability or comprehension, a sense found only in late Middle English;^[5][6] Etymonline gives power of the mind in the mid-15th century.^[2] An early form estimate was used as a participle of esteem about 1425.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The noun took the sense of a valuation in the 1560s^[2] and of an approximate judgment from the 1580s,^[2] 1630 in the OED;^[7] a builder's or tradesman's statement of projected costs is from 1796.^[7][2] In Britain the estimates are the annual accounts of probable expenditure laid before Parliament (1732).^[7] The verb, to appraise the worth of something, is from the 1530s,^[2] about 1532 in MWU;^[3] the meaning to form an approximate notion of an amount or size is from 1669.^[7][2] Older senses such as to esteem or to assign a value to have died out.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1532 – the verb, to judge or appraise.^[7][3]
• 1563 – the noun, a price or valuation.^[7][2]
• 1630 – an approximate judgment.^[7]
• 1669 – to calculate roughly.^[7][2]
• 1796 – a builder's statement of costs.^[7][2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To calculate roughly the amount, size or value of something.
2. To form an opinion about; to evaluate.
3. To submit an approximate price for a job.
4. (statistics) To assign a value to a parameter on the basis of a sample.

Noun

1. A rough calculation of an amount or value.
2. A statement of the likely cost of work to be done.
3. A judgment or appraisal of a person or thing.

Word family

• estimative
• estimator
• estimatingly
• guesstimate
• guestimate
• misestimate
• reestimate
• estimable

Related words

• esteem
• estimation
• aim
• appraise

Usage notes

The AHD distinguishes estimate, which implies a subjective, inexact judgment, from appraise and assess (an expert valuation) and evaluate.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin