Etymologically
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imply

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪmˈplaɪ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English emplien (later implien),[2][3] borrowed from Old French emplier (“to enfold”),[4][5][6] from Latin implicō (“to enfold, involve, entangle”),[4][5][3] from in- (“in”) and plicō (“to fold”),[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).[3] The prefix was later respelled after Latin.[5] Another form of the same Old French verb, emploier, gave employ, and implicate came straight from Latin, so the three are doublets.[8][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To enfold, entangle or involve: about 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

To involve something as a logical consequence is dated about 1400 in Barnhart and Etymonline,[2][3] and 1529, in Sir Thomas More, in the OED.[5] To hint at or express indirectly is from 1581.[5][2] In the 16th and 17th centuries it also meant to employ, overlapping with that word,[5][7][6] and to apply or attribute (1625–41).[5] The literal sense, to entangle, died out by 1823.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1374 – to enfold, entangle (obsolete).[5]
  • c. 1400 – to involve as a consequence.[2][3]
  • a. 1533 – to employ (obsolete).[5]
  • 1581 – to hint at.[5][2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To suggest something without stating it directly; to hint.
  2. To involve or point to something as a necessary consequence: rights imply duties.
  3. (logic) To allow a conclusion to be inferred.
  • implicate
  • implication
  • implicative
  • implicit
  • employ
  • ply
  • infer

Usage notes

The AHD and Collins both refer to their usage notes at infer, which distinguish the two words.[4][10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins