integrate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin integrātus, the past participle of integrō (“to make whole; to renew, restore”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from integer (“whole, complete; literally, untouched”),^[2][3][7] which is formed from in- (“not”) and the root of tangō (“to touch”),^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *tag- (“to touch, handle”).^[2][8] Barnhart takes the verb as developed from the earlier adjective integrate, intact, recorded from about 1450,^[4] which the OED dates from 1485 and Merriam-Webster traces to Middle English integrat.^[3][9] The Latin adjective is also the source of integral and integrity,^[7] and of entire.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective meant intact or unblemished (about 1450, Barnhart),^[4] or made up of parts, complete, entire (1485, OED).^[3] The verb is first recorded in 1638, in Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, meaning to make up or constitute a whole, said of its parts: "the particular doctrines which integrate Christianity".^[3][10][4] Merriam-Webster gives about 1586 for the sense "to form into a more complete or harmonious whole".^[9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense of the verb, to make up a whole, is now obsolete.^[3][9] From 1675 it also meant to complete something by adding the parts it lacked.^[3] The main modern sense, to bring parts together into one whole, is recorded from 1802, in the Edinburgh Review.^[3][4][2] In mathematics, to find the integral of a function, it appears in 1728, in Chambers' Cyclopaedia.^[3] From 1864 it was also used of an instrument recording the total or mean value of a quantity.^[3] The social sense, to end the segregation of black and white people or to bring groups into equal membership of a society, is dated 1948 in American English by the OED and Barnhart and 1940 by Etymonline; both Barnhart and Etymonline take it as a back-formation from integration,^[3][4][2] whose sense of desegregation Barnhart finds in 1940, in the context of South Africa.^[4] In psychology the adjective was used from 1930 of people with strong eidetic imagery, in the theories of Jaensch.^[3][10]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – adjective, intact, unblemished.^[4]
• 1485 – adjective, made up of parts; complete, entire.^[3]
• 1638 – verb, to make up or constitute a whole (Chillingworth).^[3][4]
• 1675 – to complete by adding the missing parts.^[3]
• 1728 – mathematics, to find the integral of.^[3]
• 1802 – to combine parts into a whole.^[3][4][2]
• 1930 – psychology, of people with strong eidetic imagery.^[3]
• 1948 – to end racial segregation; to bring into equal membership of a society.^[3][4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To combine parts into a whole, or to make something part of a larger whole: The new app integrates maps and timetables in one screen.
2. To open a school, park or other place to people of all races or groups; to end segregation in it.
3. To bring a group or person into full membership of a community; also, of a person or group, to become part of it.
4. (mathematics) To find the integral of a function or expression.
5. To show or record the total or the mean value of a quantity.

Adjective

1. (rare) Made up of parts; integrated or complete.

Noun

1. (rare) Something integrated; a unified whole.

Word family

• integrative
• disintegrate
• integrator
• reintegrate

Related words

• integrated
• integration
• integrity
• integer
• integral
• entire

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press