hypothetical

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑποθετικός (hupothetikós, “hypothetical”) with the suffix -al,^[2] partly through Late Latin hypotheticus.^[3][4][5] The Greek adjective is from ὑπόθετος (hupóthetos, “placed under, supposed”),^[6][4] a verbal adjective of ὑποτίθημι (hupotíthēmi, “to set under; to suppose”),^[6][4] from ὑπό (hupó, “under”) and τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”),^[5] the source also of hypothesis.^[7][6][4] The rarer hypothetic is from French hypothétique,^[3] and is recorded from the 1670s.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In logic, of a proposition: conditional, involving a hypothesis, as opposed to categorical; the OED's first example is from Abraham Fraunce's Lawiers Logike (1588),^[2][3] although the OED's first edition had dated this sense to 1551.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "of the nature of a hypothesis; conjectural" is recorded from 1617, in Francis Bacon,^[2] and "supposed, assumed", of something about which a hypothesis is made, from 1665, in Robert Hooke's Micrographia.^[2] The phrase hypothetical necessity, a necessity that holds only if something else is so, rendered Aristotle's idea in English from 1615 to 1717.^[2] A rare use of a person who deals in groundless suppositions appears in 1748.^[2] As a noun, hypothetical meant a hypothetical proposition or syllogism from 1653;^[2] grammar adopted hypothetical clause and the like from 1892.^[2]

Timeline

• 1588 – in logic, conditional, of a proposition or syllogism (OED 1989: 1551).^[2][8]
• 1615–1717 – hypothetical necessity.^[2]
• 1617 – of the nature of a hypothesis, conjectural.^[2]
• 1653 – noun, a hypothetical proposition.^[2]
• 1665 – supposed, assumed.^[2]
• 1748 – of a person, fanciful (rare).^[2]
• 1892 – in grammar, of a clause expressing a supposition.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Based on or of the nature of a hypothesis; conjectural.^[9][10][2]
2. Assumed or imagined rather than real: a hypothetical buyer for the house.^[9][10][3]
3. (logic) Conditional; of a proposition or syllogism that takes the form "if ..., then ...".^[10][3][2]

Noun

1. A hypothetical statement, proposition or case.^[3][2]

Word family

• hypothetically
• unhypothetical
• hypothetical imperative

Related words

• hypothesis
• hypothesize
• thesis
• theme
• hypothec

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins