institution

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, /ˌɪn.stɪˈtjuː.ʃən/, US /ˌɪn.stəˈtuː.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English institucioun, borrowed from Old French institucion (“foundation; thing established”),^[2][3][4] from Latin īnstitūtiō (“arrangement; instruction, education”), from īnstituere (“to set up, establish”).^[2][4] It is related to institute and constitution.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the church, the establishment of a clergyman in a cure of souls: about 1380 in the OED.^[5] The action of establishing or founding, as a government or a religious order: about 1400 in Etymonline, about 1460 in the OED.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Training and instruction is from 1531.^[5] An established law, custom or practice is from the 1550s,^[2] and an organization founded for a purpose, such as a charity, from 1707.^[2][4] The jocular use for anything that has been around a long time, as of a person who is an institution, is from 1837.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – institution of a clergyman.^[5]
• c. 1400 – the act of founding.^[2]
• 1531 – instruction.^[5]
• 1550s – an established custom.^[2]
• 1707 – an organization.^[2]
• 1837 – a familiar long-standing figure.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An important organization, such as a university, bank or hospital.
2. An established custom or practice in a society: the institution of marriage.
3. The act of starting or establishing something.
4. A hospital or home for people needing special care.
5. (informal) A person or thing long associated with a place.

Word family

• counterinstitution
• institutionary
• noninstitution
• reinstitution
• peculiar institution

Related words

• institute
• institutional
• institutionalism
• constitution
• statute

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press