every

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈev.ri/^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English every, everich,^[3][4] inherited from Old English ǣfre ǣlc (“each of a group, literally ever each”),^[5][6] a phrase formed from Old English ǣfre (“ever”) + ǣlc (“each”).^[3][7][8] According to Barnhart the OED suggests that ǣlc already contained a compound of ā (“always”), and that ǣfre was added to reinforce a meaning that had become obscured.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of a group, taken one by one: probably about 1200 as eauer-euch, literally “ever each”, then euerich (about 1250, in Ancrene Riwle) and euery (about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne).^[9][5]

Semantic evolution

At first every was not distinguished in meaning from each,^[10] which had earlier expressed the same distributive sense by itself;^[11] Etymonline notes that the word still seems to want emphasis, as in every last and every single.^[5] It could formerly be used of two things, in the sense of “each” or “both”, but is now used of three or more.^[2] In Chaucer, Shakespeare and Spenser it was also a pronoun, “each one”,^[5] as in Hooker's every of us;^[12][13] this use is now archaic.^[12][14] The sense “all possible”, as in every chance, and “complete”, as in every confidence, are later developments listed by the modern dictionaries.^[3][4] Set phrases include every now and then (1660s), the American every once in a while (1814), which Bartlett called “a singular though very common expression”, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry (by 1723).^[5] Every man for himself goes back to Chaucer, and the proverb every little helps appears to come from a 1590 French saying about an ant pissing into the sea.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – eauer-euch, each without exception.^[16][5]
• c. 1250 – euerich, in Ancrene Riwle.^[9]
• c. 1303 – the contracted form euery.^[9]
• a1250–1637 – as a pronoun, everyone.^[14]
• 1660s – every now and then.^[5]
• 1723 – every Tom, Dick, and Harry.^[5]
• 1814 – every once in a while (US).^[5]

Modern meaning

Determiner

1. Each member of a group, without exception: every child knows it.
2. All possible; the greatest or best that can be: had every chance of winning.
3. Each one of a series, marking how often something recurs or the interval between: every third day.
4. Complete, entire: we have every confidence in her.

Pronoun

1. (archaic) Each one; everyone.

Word family

• everybody
• everyday
• everyhow
• everyone
• everyplace
• everything
• everywhen
• everywhere

Related words

• each
• ever

Usage notes

Every is singular in form but plural in sense, and the American Heritage Dictionary notes that it takes a singular verb (every car has been tested); a later pronoun referring back to it is often plural in speech (their brakes), though this is still widely criticized in writing.^[4] In American English the stress of every which way changes its meaning: with the stress on which it means “in disorder, akimbo”, with the stress on every “in every possible way”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins