image

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɪm.ɪdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English image, ymage,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French image (“image, likeness; figure, portrait; reflection; statue”), earlier imagene,^[4][3] from Latin imāgō (“copy, likeness, statue, picture; phantom; idea, appearance”), genitive imāginis,^[4][2] related to imitārī (“to copy”), the source of imitate.^[2][5][6] Etymonline takes it to Proto-Indo-European *aim- (“to copy”).^[4] The verb is partly from Old French imagier and partly from the noun.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A statue or effigy, an artificial likeness of a person or thing: probably about 1200,^[2][4] before 1225 in the OED.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Senses already present in Latin came into English gradually.^[2] A reflection in a mirror is from the early 14th century,^[4][8] and a mental picture or idea from about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[2][4] In Wycliffe's Bible of 1382 God made man “to þe ymage of god”.^[4] A person who closely resembles another, as in the very image of his father, is a related sense.^[9][10] The sense “the impression a person or institution presents to the public” is found in isolated cases from 1908, in Chesterton,^[2][4] but became common only in the 1950s in the jargon of advertising and public relations, in phrases such as corporate image.^[2][4] The verb, “to form a mental picture of”, is from the late 14th century,^[4] and in modern technology “to make a visual representation of, as by scanning” is a new sense.^[9][10]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a statue, a likeness.^[2][4]
• early 14th century – a reflection.^[4][8]
• c. 1380 – a mental picture.^[2]
• late 14th century – verb, to imagine.^[4]
• 1908 – a public image.^[2][4]
• c. 1958 – in public relations.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A representation of a person or thing in a picture, photograph or sculpture.
2. A reproduction of an object formed by a lens or mirror, or on a screen.
3. A mental picture; an idea.
4. The general impression that a person, organization or product presents to the public.
5. A person who closely resembles another.
6. A vivid description or figure of speech.

Verb

1. To make a likeness of; to produce an image of, as by scanning.
2. To picture in the mind; to imagine.
3. To mirror or reflect.

Word family

• imageless
• imager
• imageable
• self-image
• imagery
• afterimage
• imagemaker
• imagesetter

Related words

• imaginary
• imaginable
• imagination
• imaginative
• imagine
• imitate
• emulate

Usage notes

In west Somerset dialect images were the plaster figures carried about for sale.^[11]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)