factory

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfæk.tər.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French factorie (15th century),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin factōrium (“office for agents; oil press, mill”),^[2][3] from Latin factor “doer, maker”, the source of factor,^[2][3][5] an agent noun from the past participle stem of facere “to do, make”,^[2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[2] Hoad considers it of mixed origin: the sense “trading station” is from Portuguese feitoria,^[6][7] and the modern sense ultimately from Late Latin factōrium “oil press”.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The office or position of a factor or estate manager, chiefly Scottish: 1560 in the OED and Barnhart,^[8][3] the 1550s in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Scotland a factor was an estate manager or agent, and a factory was the place where he worked.^[5] An establishment of merchants and agents trading in a foreign place is from 1582,^[8][3][4] as the trading stations of the East India Company.^[5] A building with plant for manufacturing goods is from 1618,^[8][3] though until the Victorian era such a building was more usually called a manufactory.^[5] Slang for a prison or police station is from 1832,^[8] and factory farm is attested from 1890.^[2] In Yorkshire dialect the factory was the parish workhouse.^[9]

Timeline

• 1560 – a factor's office.^[8][3]
• 1582 – a foreign trading post.^[8][3]
• 1618 – a building for manufacture.^[8][3]
• 1832 – a police station (slang).^[8]
• 1890 – factory farm.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A building or group of buildings where goods are manufactured; a plant.
2. (history) A trading station set up by merchants or agents in a foreign country.
3. A ship on which newly caught fish are processed.
4. A place or institution that produces something in large numbers, often mechanically.

Word family

• factorylike
• subfactory
• factory ship

Related words

• fact
• faction
• factor
• factorial
• fashion
• manufactory
• manufacture

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)