instructive

Etymology

The revised OED takes it as borrowed from Middle French instructif (“imparting knowledge”) and its source borrowed from Medieval Latin instructivus,^[2] which is formed on Latin instrūctus, the past participle of instruō (“to build, arrange, equip; to teach”),^[2][3][4] from in- and struō (“to pile up, build”).^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise thinks it probably French.^[5] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com instead take it as an English formation from instruct and -ive.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having the quality of teaching or of conveying useful information: before 1492, in Caxton's translation of the Vitas Patrum.^[2] This antedates the 1611 of the 1989 edition of the OED and of Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[8][5] and the 1610s in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline records an earlier adjective instructing from the 1580s.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "conveying knowledge", quoting Holder and Addison's Spectator, and he compared the French word.^[9] The OED's sense covers both the training of a person and the giving of useful information,^[2] while the Oxford Dictionary of English has only "useful and informative".^[10] In the 19th century grammarians took it up for a case in Finnish and other Finno-Ugric languages, which expresses the means by which something is done: first as an adjective in 1857, then as a noun in 1879.^[2][6]

Timeline

• before 1492 – educating; conveying useful information.^[2]
• 1857 – of a grammatical case in some Finno-Ugric languages.^[2][8]
• 1879 – noun, this case.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Serving to teach or inform; enlightening: It is instructive to compare the two drafts.^{[11][5][12][10]}
2. (grammar) Of a case in Finnish and other Finno-Ugric languages, expressing the means by which something is done.^[2][6]

Noun

1. (grammar) This case, or a word in it.^[2][6]

Word family

• instructively
• instructiveness
• noninstructive
• uninstructive

Related words

• instruct
• instruction
• instructor
• structure
• construct

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt