integration

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌɪn.tɪˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən/ (UK); /ˌɪn.təˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French intégration or directly borrowed from Late Latin integrātio (“renewal, restoration”),^[2][3][4] from integrāre (“to make whole; to renew”) (see integrate), from integer (“whole”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The making up of a whole by combining its parts: 1620 in the OED, the 1610s in Etymonline.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In mathematics, finding the integral of a function is from 1727–41.^[5] In psychology, the combining of diverse parts into a complex whole is from 1855.^[5] The social sense, bringing groups previously kept apart into equal membership of society, opposed to segregation, is from 1934 in Etymonline, 1940 in the OED.^[2][5] The joining of nations or economies follows.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 1620 – combining parts into a whole.^[5]
• 1727 – in mathematics.^[5]
• 1855 – in psychology.^[5]
• 1934 – racial integration.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of combining parts into a whole.
2. The bringing of people of different races or groups into equal membership of a society; desegregation.
3. (mathematics) The process of finding an integral.

Word family

• reintegration
• integrationist
• integral calculus
• constant of integration
• integration by parts
• large-scale integration
• medium-scale integration

Related words

• integer
• integrable
• integral
• integrand
• integrate
• integrator
• integrity
• disintegration

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins