Etymologically
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global

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈɡləʊ.bəl/, US /ˈɡloʊ.bəl/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English globe + -al.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Spherical”: 1640 in Merriam-Webster,[4] 1676 in the OED,[5] or the 1670s;[2] the sense is rare.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning “embracing the totality of a group of items”, and “worldwide, pertaining to the whole globe”, is from 1892, after a sense development in French global.[2][5] Global village is first attested in 1960, popularized if not coined by the Canadian educator Marshall McLuhan.[2][5] Globalism and globalization are from 1959,[5] the computing sense, “affecting a whole program or file”, from 1964,[5] and global warming from 1977.[5]

Timeline

  • 1640 – spherical.[4]
  • 1892 – worldwide; total.[2][5]
  • 1959 – globalism, globalization.[5]
  • 1960 – global village.[2][5]
  • 1964 – in computing, affecting a whole file.[5]
  • 1977 – global warming.[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of or involving the whole world; worldwide.
  2. Including everything; comprehensive or total.
  3. (computing) Applying to a whole program, document or file.
  4. (rare) Shaped like a globe; spherical.

Word family

  • globally
  • globalisation
  • globalism
  • globalization
  • globalize
  • Global Positioning System
  • global village
  • global warming
  • globe
  • globular
  • globule
  • conglomerate

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press