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intention

Etymology and origin of the English word intention

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1340
Borrowed from
Old French entencion
Ultimate origin
Latin (intentio)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪnˈten.ʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English entencioun, intencioun, borrowed from Old French entencion (“intent, purpose; will; thought”) (modern French intention),[2][3][4] from Latin intentiō (“a stretching out, straining, exertion; attention”) (accusative intentionem),[2][5] a noun of action from intendere (“to turn one's attention”), literally “to stretch out” (see intend).[2][6] It is a doublet of intension.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The faculty of understanding: 1340 in the OED;[7] purpose, design or aim in the late 14th century, 1375 in the OED.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English intention also meant emotion and feelings, the heart or mind and understanding.[2] The meaning or significance of something is from 1387–88,[7] and the concentration of the mind on something from about 1400.[7] An ultimate aim is from about 1410.[7] In the plural, colloquially, a man's purposes towards a proposal of marriage are from 1751.[7][8] In literary criticism the aim a critic detects in a writer's work is from 1946.[7] In medicine, healing by first intention, the natural closing of a wound, is another sense.[9]

Timeline

  • 1340 – understanding.[7]
  • 1375 – a purpose, design.[7]
  • c. 1400 – concentration of mind.[7]
  • c. 1410 – an ultimate aim.[7]
  • 1751 – intentions towards marriage.[7]
  • 1946 – in literary criticism.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Something one means to do; an aim or purpose.
  2. (plural) One's aims with respect to marriage: honourable intentions.
  3. (law) The purpose with which a person acts, a necessary element of some offences.
  4. (medicine) A natural process of healing, as of a wound.

Word family

  • intentionless
  • misintention
  • subintention
  • intentional
  • well-intentioned
  • secondary intention

Usage notes

The AHD distinguishes intention from intent, purpose, goal, end, aim, object and objective: intention simply names a course of action one proposes to follow, intent implies more deliberateness, purpose adds resolution, goal may suggest an idealistic or remote purpose, end a long-range goal, aim the direction of one's efforts, object an end one tries to carry out, and objective often an end that can be reached.[8]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Intention.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/intention. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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