Etymologically
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identify

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /aɪˈden.tɪ.faɪ/, US /aɪˈden.t̬ɪ.faɪ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French identifier,[2][3][4] from identité, the source of identity,[2][3] and the suffix -fier, -fy.[4][3] NODE and SOED derive it from Medieval Latin identificāre, from Late Latin identitās and Latin -ficāre, from facere “to make”.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To regard or treat as the same: 1644 in the OED and Barnhart,[7][3] the 1640s in Etymonline;[2] Merriam-Webster gives 1626.[4]

Semantic evolution

To become or prove to be the same was used intransitively from 1683 into the 19th century.[7][6] To establish who or what a person or thing is, to recognize, is recorded from 1769.[3][2][7] Identify oneself with, to associate oneself closely with, is from 1780,[2][7] and later in psychology to model oneself on someone, especially unconsciously.[7] To serve as a means of identification is from 1886,[2][7] and the colloquial sense “to discover, perceive” from 1922.[7] Identification is from 1644,[3] and identifiable from 1804.[3]

Timeline

  • 1644 – to regard as the same, and identification.[7][3]
  • 1683 – to become the same (obsolete).[7]
  • 1769 – to establish the identity of.[3][7]
  • 1780 – identify oneself with.[2][7]
  • 1804 – identifiable.[3]
  • 1886 – to serve to identify.[2][7]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To establish or recognize who or what someone or something is.
  2. To discover or determine the nature or cause of: identify the problem.
  3. To determine the taxonomic classification of an organism.
  4. To consider as the same; to equate.
  5. identify with: to feel a close sympathy with, or to associate oneself with.

Word family

  • identifiable
  • identifiably
  • identifier
  • identifiability
  • unidentified
  • unidentifying
  • misidentify
  • overidentify
  • identic
  • identical
  • identification
  • identity
  • idem

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 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 c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ 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