Etymologically
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identity

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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
  • 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