injury

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɪn.dʒᵊr.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English injurie,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman injurie (“wrongful action”) (Old French injure),^[4][2][5] from Latin iniūria (“wrong, injustice, insult, damage”),^[4][2] the noun use of the feminine of iniūrius (“wrongful, unjust”),^[4][2] from in- (“not”) and iūs (“right, law”) (genitive iūris).^[4][2][6] It is related to just, jury and jurist.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wrongful action or treatment, violation of another's rights: 1382 in the OED,^[7] about 1384 in the Wycliffe Bible according to Barnhart.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century, in the sense “harm, damage, loss”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a wrong or injustice, as in Latin;^[6][7] insulting or offensive words followed in 1514, a sense now obsolete,^[7][6] and hurt or loss suffered by a person or thing from about 1430.^[7][6] A bodily wound is recorded in 1599.^[7] The verb injure, “to treat unjustly”, is from about 1450,^[2] partly a back-formation from the noun,^[2] and its sense “to harm, damage” from 1586.^[2] In law the old sense of a violation of rights survives.^[8]

Timeline

• 1382 – wrongful treatment.^[7]
• c. 1430 – harm, loss.^[7]
• c. 1450 – verb injure.^[2]
• 1514 – insulting words.^[7]
• 1599 – a bodily wound.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Physical harm or damage to a person or thing.
2. A particular hurt, such as a wound.
3. (law) A violation of another's rights for which legal redress is available.
4. (archaic) An insult.

Word family

• noninjury
• reinjury
• self-injury
• repetitive strain injury

Related words

• injure
• injurious
• just
• jury
• jurist
• justice

Usage notes

In Devon dialect, to do an injury to someone was to cast the evil eye on them, to bewitch them.^[9]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d 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
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)