intercept

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English intercepten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin interceptus, the past participle of intercipiō (“to take or seize between, to seize in passing”),^[5][4][6][2] from inter- (“between”) and capiō (“to take, seize”).^[3][7][8][9] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).^[5] The OED compares French intercepter, in Cotgrave (1611).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cut off between two points, of an arc or a segment of a line: in Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe (1391), as the past participle intercept.^[2][4][7] The Middle English verb also meant to stop corrupt matter from spreading, and to take away authority.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The OED records the verb itself from 1545, of stopping the natural course of light, heat or water, and since 1548 of seizing a person, ship or letter on the way;^[7] Etymonline also dates the sense "interrupt the passage of" to the 1540s, and Barnhart to about 1540.^[5][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to stop and seize in the way".^[10] The mathematical sense of marking off a space between two lines is recorded from before 1560 in Digges.^[7] Sporting use, of a player cutting off a pass, is recorded for the verb since 1880^[7] and for the noun since 1821.^[5][7][11] The noun was used in mathematics for the part of a line between two intersections from 1864, in navigation from 1901, and for an intercepted message or conversation from 1942.^[7]

Timeline

• 1391 – past participle, included between two points (Chaucer).^[4][7]
• 1545 – to stop the course of light, heat or water.^[7]
• 1548 – to seize on the way to a destination.^[7]
• before 1560 – to mark off a space between two points or lines.^[7]
• 1581 – to prevent the effect of an action.^[7]
• 1821 – noun, an interception.^[7][11]
• 1864 – noun, in mathematics, part of a line between intersections.^[7]
• 1880 – verb, in sport, to cut off a pass.^[7]
• 1942 – noun, an intercepted message.^[7][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stop, seize or turn aside a person or thing on the way from one place to another: Customs officers intercepted the shipment at the border.^[12][11][7]
2. To pick up a message or signal meant for someone else, usually secretly.^[11]
3. In sport, to cut off a pass meant for an opponent's teammate.^[12][7]
4. In mathematics, to mark off or enclose part of a line, curve or surface between two points or lines.^[12][7]

Noun

1. An interception, especially of a pass.^[11][7]
2. In mathematics, the part of a coordinate axis between the origin and the point where a graph crosses it.^[11][13]
3. An intercepted message, signal or code.^[11][7]

Word family

• interceptive
• unintercepted
• interception
• interceptor
• x-intercept
• y-intercept

Related words

• capture
• accept
• except
• receive

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press