Etymologically
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event

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪˈvent/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French event,[2][3][4] a learned borrowing from Latin ēventus (“occurrence, accident, issue, fortune”),[2][3][5] from the past participle stem of ēvenīre (“to come out, happen, result”),[2][3][6] formed from ē- (“out”) and venīre (“to come”).[2][3][5] Etymonline traces venīre to Proto-Indo-European *gwa- (“to go, come”).[3][5] It is related to come, venue, advent and eventual.[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The outcome or result of something: 1570–76[2] or the 1570s,[3] as in the phrase in the event that.[3]

Semantic evolution

“Something that happens, an incident” is first recorded in 1588,[2][8] or the 1580s.[3] The fact of something happening is from 1602.[8] The course of events is from 1719 in the OED[8] and 1842 in Etymonline.[3] In modern use the word is mostly restricted to occurrences of some importance, from 1883.[8] In sport, a contest in a programme is an event from 1865,[3] and something on which money is staked from 1855.[8] Word Origins notes that the sense “a planned or scheduled occasion” developed later.[9] In physics, event horizon is from 1969.[3] Eventual is from the 17th century, and eventuate from the 18th, originally American.[10]

Timeline

  • 1570s – an outcome.[3][2]
  • 1588 – a happening.[2][8]
  • 1602 – the fact of happening.[8]
  • 1855 – a sporting event.[8]
  • 1883 – a notable occurrence.[8]
  • 1969 – event horizon.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Something that happens, especially something important.
  2. A social gathering or organized occasion.
  3. The final result; the outcome: in the event.
  4. A contest or item in a sports programme.
  5. (physics) An occurrence at a single point in space-time.

Word family

  • eventless
  • eventual
  • eventful
  • come
  • venue
  • advent
  • prevent
  • invent
  • convent

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press