implication

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English implicacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin implicātiō (“an interweaving, entanglement”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} a noun of action from implicātus, the past participle of implicō (“to involve, entangle; to connect closely”),^[6][7][4] which is formed from in- (“in, into”) and plicō (“to fold”), reconstructed by Etymonline as from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[6] The MED gives Old French as a second source,^[2] while the OED compares French implication, recorded only from the 16th century in the senses "complicity" and "contradiction".^[5] The same Latin verb is the source of implicate and, through Old French, of imply.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Complication, complexity: perhaps before 1425, in a Middle English translation of Chauliac, which says that the inplicacionz of conditions make a cure hard.^[2] The OED's first record, about 1430 in the Pilgrimage of Lyf of Manhode, is for the action of entwining or entangling, or the state of being entangled.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense "that which is implied but not stated" came in the mid 16th century:^[6][9] the OED's first quotation is of 1581, and the phrase by implication is recorded from before 1575.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave both meanings, "involution; entanglement", with a quotation from Boyle on the parts of a body, and "inference not expressed, but tacitly inculcated".^[10] The literal sense "entwining" is now rare.^[9] In 1873 the word was used for being involved in some condition,^[5] and Merriam-Webster records the sense of an incriminating involvement.^[11] In logic, a relation between propositions in which one implies the other is recorded from 1906, in a paper by B. Russell.^[5][9]

Timeline

• ?a1425 – complication, complexity, in a translation of Chauliac.^[2]
• c. 1430 – entwining, entanglement.^[5]
• a1575 – by implication.^[5]
• 1581 – the action of implying; something implied.^[5][6]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as entanglement and as unexpressed inference.^[10]
• 1873 – involvement in some condition.^[5]
• 1906 – logic, a relation between propositions, in Russell.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something implied but not said outright; a suggestion or implied meaning: The implication of her silence was that she disagreed.^[3][12][13]
2. The act of implying, or the state of being implied, as in the phrase by implication, through what is implied rather than stated.^[13][5][9]
3. The act of implicating someone, or the state of being implicated, especially an incriminating involvement.^[12][13][11]
4. (logic) A relation between two propositions such that one follows from the other, or the operator that joins two sentences as "if … then …".^[12][5][11]
5. (rare) The action of entwining or entangling; the state of being entwined.^[9][5]

Word family

• implicative
• implicatively
• implicativeness
• implicational
• nonimplication
• material implication

Related words

• implicate
• implicature
• implicit
• imply

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin