gradation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin gradātiō (“ascent by steps, climax”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} and, according to Etymonline and Barnhart, also borrowed from Middle French gradation;^[8][9] the OED only compares the French word, which it records from 1520 in the rhetorical sense.^[2] The Latin noun is from gradus (“step, degree”), the source of grade,^{[2][3][6][10][11]} although Etymonline derives it from the verb gradior (“to walk, go, step”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In rhetoric, a climax: 1538, in Elyot's Dictionary.^[2][9][6] The OED notes that this is also the earliest recorded sense in French,^[2] and Etymonline likewise has "a climax" in the 1530s.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the figure of rising step by step, the word passed in 1549, in a sermon of Latimer's, to a series of successive conditions or events forming stages in a course, a use the OED thinks was probably suggested at first by the rhetorical sense.^[2][9] Etymonline has this meaning, "gradual change", from the 1540s.^[8] From 1599 the plural meant steps or stages themselves,^[2][9] at first of physical movement and now only of immaterial advance.^[2] A different line, of rank and degree, appears with Bacon's plural of 1605, degrees forming a series between two extremes,^[2] with the singular for a position in a scale, relative rank, in Shakespeare's Othello (before 1616, obsolete by 1802),^[2] and with the collective sense of a scale or series of degrees, in Hale before 1676;^[2] Etymonline dates "orderly arrangement or succession" to the 1670s.^[8] Johnson (1755) gave "regular progress from one degree to another" as the first sense.^[12] Specialist uses followed: in alchemy, raising to a higher degree (1617–1728),^[2] in logic, a sorites (1728),^[2] in painting, a gradual passing from one colour or tone to another (early 18th century),^[4] and in philology ablaut, from the 19th century.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1538 – in rhetoric, a climax.^[2][9][6]
• 1549 – a series of successive conditions or events forming stages in a course.^[2][9] Etymonline dates “gradual change” to the 1540s.^[8]
• 1589 – the process of advancing step by step (obsolete by 1750).^[2]
• 1599 – plural, steps or stages of transition or advance.^[2][9]
• 1605 – plural, degrees of rank, merit or intensity forming a series between two extremes.^[2]
• before 1616 – position in a scale, relative rank (obsolete by 1802).^[2]
• 1617 – in alchemy, raising to a higher degree (obsolete by 1728).^[2]
• before 1676 – a scale or series of degrees.^[2] Etymonline dates “orderly arrangement or succession” to the 1670s.^[8]
• early 18th century – a gradual passing from one colour, shade or tone to another.^[4]
• 1858 – the action of arranging in a series of grades.^[2]
• late 19th century – in philology, ablaut.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A series of stages or steps by which something progresses; gradual progression.^[13][6]
2. One of the stages or degrees in such a series: the fine gradations of rank at the old court.^[13][6]
3. The act or process of arranging something in grades or stages.^[13][2]
4. In painting, drawing or sculpture, a gradual passing from one colour, tone or surface to another.^[13][4]
5. (linguistics) Ablaut: a change in the quality or length of a vowel within a word that marks a distinction such as inflection.^[13][4]
6. (obsolete) In rhetoric, a climax.^[6][2]
7. (obsolete) Position in a scale; relative rank.^[2][4]
8. (obsolete, 1698–1802) Plural, steps or tiers, or arrangements resembling them.^[2][4]
9. (obsolete, 1617–1728) In alchemy, raising to a higher degree; exaltation.^[2][4]

Word family

• gradational
• gradationally
• gradate
• intergradation
• progradation

Related words

• grade
• gradual
• degree

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins