future

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈfjuː.tʃə/, US /ˈfjuː.tʃɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English future (also futur), borrowed from Old French futur (“future, to come”) and directly borrowed from Latin futūrus (“about to be”),^[2][3][4] the irregular future participle of esse (“to be”),^[2][3][4] formed on the stem fu-,^[5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *bheuə- (“to be, exist, grow”).^[2][7] It is related to be.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both the adjective, “that is yet to be”, and the noun, “time to come”, appear about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[3][2] The noun was modelled on Latin futūra, the neuter plural of futūrus.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In grammar future has described a tense since the 1520s^[2] or 1530.^[8] Futurity is from the 17th century.^[6] From 1733 the adjective could refer to the life after death, as in a future state.^[8] Futurist is recorded from 1842,^[3] and futurism meant the belief that biblical prophecies were still to be fulfilled in the 19th century,^[6] and the Italian art movement from 1909, a term said to have been coined by Filippo Marinetti.^[3] Futurology appeared in 1946 in a letter by Aldous Huxley, but caught on only in the late 1960s.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – adjective and noun (Chaucer).^[3]
• 1520s – of grammatical tense.^[2]
• 17th century – futurity.^[6]
• 1733 – of the life to come.^[8]
• 1842 – futurist.^[3]
• 1909 – futurism in art.^[3]
• 1946 – futurology (Huxley).^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The time yet to come.
2. What will happen in time to come.
3. Prospects of success or advancement: a career with a future.
4. (plural) Goods or stocks bought or sold for delivery at a later date.
5. (grammar) The future tense.

Adjective

1. That is to be or to come; of or existing in later time.

Word family

• futurama
• futureless
• futurism
• futurist
• futurology
• nonfuturistic
• unfuturistic
• futuristic

Related words

• futurity
• be

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)