imagination

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English imaginacioun, borrowed from Old French imaginacion (“concept, mental picture”),^[2][3][4] from Latin imāginātio (“imagination, a fancy”), from imāginārī (“to picture to oneself”) (see imagine), from imāgo (“image, likeness”) (see image).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The faculty of the mind that forms images or concepts of things not present: 1340 in the OED, the mid-14th century in Etymonline;^[5][2] the action of imagining is from before 1340.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Scheming or devising a plot is from about 1385, now obsolete,^[5] and fanciful thought from about 1386.^[5] The creative faculty in its highest form, the power to frame new ideas, as of poets, is from 1509.^[5] Expectation of what is likely was a 17th-century sense.^[5] Resourcefulness in dealing with problems is a modern use.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 1340 – the faculty of forming images.^[5]
• c. 1385 – a scheme or plot (obsolete).^[5]
• 1509 – the creative faculty.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The ability of the mind to form images and ideas of things not present to the senses.
2. The ability to be creative or resourceful.
3. Something imagined; a fancy.

Word family

• imaginational

Related words

• imagine
• image
• imaginary
• imaginative
• imitate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins