identity

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /aɪˈden.tə.ti/, US /aɪˈden.t̬ə.t̬i/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French identité,^[2][3] 14th century,^[4] from Late Latin identitās (“sameness”),^[2][5] formed irregularly from Latin idem (“the same”),^[4][2][3] from id “it”,^[6] probably on the model of Late Latin essentitās or entitās “being”,^[6][5] and perhaps associated with Latin identidem (“repeatedly”), from idem et idem.^[7][5][2] Klein and Barnhart take the Late Latin word as a translation of Greek Ancient Greek ταὐτότης (tautótēs, “sameness”).^[8][2] It replaced the earlier English idemptitie (1560s, 1570), from Medieval Latin idemptitās.^[4][2] It is related to identical and identify.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Sameness, oneness”, the quality of being the same in substance or nature: 1545 in Merriam-Webster,^[3] 1570 in the OED,^[10] 1603 in Barnhart^[2] and about 1600 in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sameness of a person or thing at all times and in all circumstances, the fact of being oneself and no other, is from 1638.^[10] Mistaken identity, an error as to who a person is, appears in the Shorter Oxford's examples of the first sense.^[5] In mathematics an identity is an equation true for all values, from 1859.^[10] The set of characteristics by which a person is recognized as a member of a group gave identity crisis, recorded by 1954,^[4] identity politics, attested by 1985 and brought to attention by the 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement,^[4] and identity theft, from 1995.^[4]

Timeline

• 1545 – sameness.^[3]
• 1638 – the sameness of a person; individuality.^[10]
• 1859 – in mathematics.^[10]
• 1954 – identity crisis.^[4]
• 1985 – identity politics.^[4]
• 1995 – identity theft.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The set of characteristics by which a person or thing is known or recognized; individuality.
2. The characteristics by which a person is recognized as a member of a group: national identity.
3. The fact of being who or what one is said to be: proof of identity.
4. The quality of being the same as something else; sameness.
5. In mathematics, an equation that is true for all values of its variables.

Word family

• nonidentity
• self-identity
• dissociative identity disorder
• identity card
• identity crisis
• identity matrix
• identity politics
• identity theft

Related words

• identic
• identical
• identification
• identify
• idem
• entity
• ID

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press