grade

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡreɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French grade (“grade, degree”),^[2][3] and directly from Latin gradus (“a step, pace; a degree”),^[2][3][4] from gradī (“to walk, step, go”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[2][3] It replaced Middle English gree “a step, degree”, from Old French gre.^[2][3] The verb is from the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A degree of angular measurement, the 90th part of a right angle: about 1511 in the OED,^[5] the 1510s in Etymonline^[2] and 1526 in Merriam-Webster.^[4] This use was largely replaced by degree, from the same source.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

A step or stage in a process is from 1796,^[3][5] a class of things of the same quality from 1807,^[2][3] and a degree in rank from 1808.^[3][5] The slope of a road or railway is from 1811.^[2] A school class representing one year's work is from 1835, chiefly North American,^[2][5] and a letter mark for a student's work from 1886.^[2][5] Grade A, top quality, originally of milk, is from a US system begun in 1912,^[2] and to make the grade, “to succeed”, also from 1912.^[2] The verb, “to arrange in grades”, is from the 1650s,^[2] “to level a road” from 1835, and “to mark students' work” from 1931.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1511 – a degree of angle.^[5]
• 1650s – verb, to arrange in grades.^[2]
• 1796 – a stage in a process.^[3][5]
• 1807 – a class of quality.^[2][3]
• 1811 – a slope.^[2]
• 1835 – a school year.^[2]
• 1886 – a mark for school work.^[2][5]
• 1912 – make the grade.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A level of quality, rank or value.
2. A mark showing the quality of a student's work.
3. (North American) A class or year in school.
4. The degree of slope of a road or railway; a gradient.
5. A stage or degree in a process.

Verb

1. To sort by size, quality or rank.
2. To give a mark to a student's work.
3. To level a road to a gentle slope.

Word family

• gradeless
• gradable

Related words

• degree
• gradual
• graduate
• gradient
• degrade
• progress
• grade school

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 i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press