intake

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɪn.teɪk/^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from in and take, after the phrase take in.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In northern dialect, a piece of land taken in from a moor or common: about 1330 in the OED;^[5] the NODE says the word began in Scots and northern English.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The place where water is taken into a channel or pipe is from about 1800,^[4][5] and the act of taking in, as of food or breath, from 1808.^[4][5] The airway carrying fresh air into a mine is from 1851,^[5] and an air intake of an engine from 1946.^[5] A group of new entrants to a school or the army is from before 1943.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – land taken in (dialect).^[5]
• c. 1800 – a water intake.^[4][5]
• 1808 – the act of taking in.^[4]
• 1851 – a mine airway.^[5]
• before 1943 – a group of entrants.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The amount of something taken in: an intake of students, calorie intake.
2. The act of taking in.
3. An opening through which a fluid, such as air or water, enters.

Word family

• intake valve
• intake manifold

Related words

• take
• in
• uptake

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press