Etymologically
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every

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Pronunciation

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

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