Etymologically
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individual

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˌɪn.dɪˈvɪdʒ.u.əl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English indyvyduall (“indivisible, single”),[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin indīviduālis (“indivisible, individual”), perhaps through Middle French,[3][4] from Latin indīviduus (“indivisible, inseparable”),[5][4][3] from in- (“not”) and dīviduus (“divisible”),[5][4] from dīvidere (“to divide”).[5][4] It is related to divide.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

“One and indivisible”, with reference to the Trinity: about 1425,[7][3] the early 15th century.[5] Etymonline notes that the word was not common before about 1600 and that the 15th-century example may be an outlier.[5]

Semantic evolution

The original sense “indivisible” and the sense “inseparable” (about 1600) are obsolete.[7][5] “Pertaining to a single person or thing” is from 1605, in Bacon's Advancement of Learning,[3][7] and “single, separate” from the 1610s (1613).[5][7] “Marked by its own peculiar character, distinctive” is from 1646.[7] The noun meant a single thing from about 1600 (1605),[5][3] and a single human being as opposed to a group from the 1640s[5] or 1626.[3] The colloquial sense “a person” is attested from 1742.[5] “Intended for one person”, as in individual portions, is from 1889.[5][7] Individualism is from 1827, partly through the translation of de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – indivisible.[7][3]
  • 1605 – peculiar to one person; noun, a single thing.[3]
  • 1613 – single, separate.[7]
  • 1626 – noun, a single person.[3]
  • 1742 – noun, a person (colloquial).[5]
  • 1827 – individualism.[3]
  • 1889 – intended for one person.[5][7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Single; separate.
  2. Of, for or done by one person: individual portions.
  3. Distinctive; having its own character.

Noun

  1. A single human being, as distinct from a group or society.
  2. A person, especially one of a particular kind.
  3. (biology) A single animal or plant, as distinct from a species or group.

Word family

  • individually
  • nonindividual
  • superindividual
  • transindividual
  • individualism
  • individualise
  • individuality
  • individualize

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary finds the noun unexceptionable when it sets a person against a larger group or marks them out by some special quality, but notes that since the 19th century critics have objected to its use simply for “a person”, where person would do;[8] the Century Dictionary called that use incorrect.[5]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin