induce

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English enducen, later inducen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin indūcō (“to lead into, bring in, introduce; persuade”),^[5][6][2][7] from in- (“in, into”) and dūcō (“to lead”),^[6][8][7] from Proto-Indo-European *deuk- (“to lead”).^[6][8] The early enducen follows Old French enduire, whose prefix en- was often given to the English verb from the 14th to the 18th century,^[5][9] and the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford allow a source in that French verb, as the American Heritage Dictionary does in inducer.^[10][11][8] Barnhart thinks that the later inducen (1402) may owe its form to Middle French inducer.^[2] The Latin verb had developed several special senses, some of which English took over and later lost.^[5] Related English words from dūcō include duke, adduce, deduce, reduce and induct.^[7][12][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lead on, persuade: about 1385, as enducen in Thomas Usk's Testament of Love.^[2] Etymonline gives the sense "to lead by persuasions or other influences" from the late 14th century,^[6] while the OED's first record (1401) is the now obsolete sense "to bring in, introduce" a practice, custom or law.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Middle English used the verb for introducing a custom, law or belief, for inserting something in a story, and even for planting a flower, all closer to the Latin "lead in".^[3][5] These literal uses, with others such as bringing a character into a literary work (1484–1744) and initiating a person into a subject (1477–1561), died out by the 18th century.^[5][11] The sense of causing or bringing about, as a fever or a trance, appears from the early 15th century (1413 in the OED),^[6][5] and the logical sense "to infer by reasoning" from the 1560s.^[6][13] Johnson (1755) gave "to persuade; to influence to any thing" as the first sense.^[14] The electrical sense, to produce a current or magnetic state by induction, is recorded from 1777, in Cavallo's treatise on electricity,^[5][6] and the medical one, to start labour artificially, from the mid-19th century.^[11][13] The OED notes that the verb is now widespread in technical contexts, often with a material object.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – enducen, to lead on, persuade, in Usk.^[2]
• 1401 – to bring in, introduce a practice or law (now obsolete).^[5]
• 1413 – to bring about, cause.^[5][6]
• 1430–40 – of circumstances, to lead a person to an action or belief, in Lydgate.^[5]
• 1484 – to bring in as a character in a literary work (obsolete by 1744).^[5]
• 1560s – to infer by reasoning.^[6]
• 1594 – inducement, in Shakespeare's Richard III.^[2]
• 1777 – to produce an electric current or magnetic state by induction.^[5][6]
• mid 19th century – to start labour artificially.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lead someone to do something by persuasion or influence: Nothing could induce him to sell the farm.^[13][4][11]
2. To cause or bring about: The drug can induce drowsiness.^[13][4][11]
3. (medicine) To start labour artificially, as with a drug, or to bring on labour in a mother.^[13][11]
4. (physics) To produce an electromotive force, an electric current or magnetism by induction.^[13][5]
5. (logic) To reach a general conclusion by induction from particular cases.^[13][6]
6. (obsolete) To bring in or introduce a practice, law or custom.^[5][11]

Word family

• inducible
• preinduce
• reinduce

Related words

• inducement
• inducer
• induct
• induction
• duke
• adduce
• deduce
• reduce
• conduct
• endue

References

1. ^ a b 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 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)
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.