information

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˌɪn.fəˈmeɪ.ʃᵊn/, US /ˌɪn.fɚˈmeɪ.ʃᵊn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English informacion, borrowed from Old French informacion (also enformacion),^[2][3] from Latin informātiō (“outline, concept, idea”) (accusative informātiōnem),^[2][3][4] a noun of action from informāre (“to shape; to train, instruct”).^[2][4] It is the noun of inform.^[2][5] The spelling was brought back into line with Latin in the 16th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The shaping of the mind or character; training, teaching: 1387.^[6][7][8] In the same year it also meant the laying of an accusation against someone, a sense that lasted until 1660.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From 1390 information meant the act of telling someone something,^[6][9] and in the mid-15th century it came to mean the knowledge passed on about a particular matter.^[2][6] In law, from 1467, it is a formal complaint or charge.^[9] Its technical uses are modern: a mathematically defined quantity from 1925,^[6] television signals from 1937, punch-card systems from 1944 and DNA from 1953.^[2] Information theory dates from 1950, information technology from 1958, when it was coined in the Harvard Business Review, and information overload from 1967.^[2] The early sense “instruction” is now rare or obsolete.^[4]

Timeline

• 1387 – training, instruction; an accusation.^[6][9]
• 1390 – communication of news.^[6]
• mid-15th century – knowledge communicated.^[2]
• 1467 – a legal charge.^[9]
• 1925 – a measurable quantity.^[6]
• 1950 – information theory.^[2]
• 1958 – information technology.^[2]
• 1967 – information overload.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Knowledge gained through study, experience or instruction.
2. Facts about a particular event or situation; intelligence, news.
3. A collection of facts or data.
4. The act of informing, or the state of being informed.
5. (computing) A meaningful signal or character used as input to a computer or communication system.
6. (mathematics) A numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome.
7. (law) A formal accusation of a crime made by a public officer.

Word family

• informational
• informationally

Related words

• inform
• informant
• informatics
• information overload
• information retrieval
• information science
• information superhighway
• information technology
• information theory
• form
• formation
• informer

Usage notes

RHWU distinguishes information, facts that are told or read and may be disconnected, from knowledge, an organized body of such facts and the understanding that comes from it, and wisdom, a knowledge of people and life so well absorbed that it yields judgment and insight.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)