Etymologically
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future

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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
  • 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)