interdict

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English enterdit,^[2][3] also entredit,^[4][5] borrowed from Old French entredit,^[6][3][2][7] and directly borrowed from Latin interdictum (“a prohibition”),^[3][2] the noun use of the neuter of the past participle of interdīcō (“to interpose by speech, forbid by decree”),^[6][3][7] formed from inter (“between”) and dīcō (“to say, speak”),^[6][3] from Proto-Indo-European *deik- (“to show, pronounce solemnly”).^[3][8] The English word took its Latin spelling in the 16th century;^[6][9][10] Barnhart records the prefix spelling inter- from 1423–50 in the participle and before 1464 in the noun.^[11] French made the same change, Old French intredit in the 14th century and now French interdit.^[6] The verb is inherited from Middle English enterditen,^[2][11][3] which the OED takes from the noun, after the French verb entredire,^[6][7] while Etymonline and Barnhart take it from the participle of that verb.^[3][11] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from c. 1136–65.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Under the ban of the Church: the verb from c. 1290, in Beket in the South English Legendary,^[6] and the noun from 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, for a papal decree that shut a nation off from the ministrations of the Church.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that English adopted the senses in the reverse of the order in which they arose.^[6] The Latin verb meant to interpose by speech, then to forbid by decree, and the church use was a later specialisation,^[6][3] but it was the one that English took first.^[6][13] The verb's general sense, "to forbid, prohibit", appears in the early 15th century according to Etymonline and Barnhart, the latter citing a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[3][11] while the OED has it from 1502.^[6] The noun followed later, from before 1626, in Bacon.^[6][3][9] Roman law's decree of the praetor is recorded from 1611, in Florio,^[6] and the sense "court order forbidding an act" belongs to Scots and civil law: from the mid-18th century in the Shorter Oxford and 1810 in the OED.^[7][6] Johnson (1755) gave both the general and the papal sense.^[14] The military verb, to cut enemy supply lines by bombing, dates from 1944 in Barnhart and 1951 in the OED.^[11][6] The OED records its transfer to intercepting a prohibited commodity,^[6] and the Concise Oxford labels the general and intercepting senses chiefly North American.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – verb, to cut off from the rites and privileges of the Church.^[6]
• 1297 – noun, a sentence shutting a place or person off from the rites and privileges of the Church.^[6]
• before 1425 – verb, to forbid or prohibit, in a translation of Higden.^[11] The OED's first quotation is from 1502.^[6]
• 1432 – adjective, interdicted (obsolete by 1593).^[6]
• c. 1575 – verb, to restrain a person by authority.^[6]
• 1611 – noun, in Roman law, a provisional decree of the praetor.^[6]
• before 1626 – noun, an authoritative prohibition, in Bacon.^[6]
• 1810 – noun, in Scots law, a court order stopping a proceeding.^[6]
• 1944 – verb, to hamper the enemy by aerial bombing.^[11] The OED's first quotation is from 1951.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An authoritative prohibition or decree.^[5][6]
2. (Roman Catholic Church) A censure barring a person or the people of a place from the sacraments and other rites.^[16][5][6]
3. (law) In Scots and civil law, a court order forbidding an act, comparable to an injunction.^[16][6][7]
4. (Roman law) An order of a praetor commanding or forbidding an act.^[16][5][6]

Verb

1. To forbid by authority; to prohibit: The new rules interdict hunting in the reserve.^[5][6][16]
2. To restrain a person from doing or using something; to debar.^[5][6]
3. (Roman Catholic Church) To place under an interdict.^[5][6][16]
4. (military) To hamper an enemy force or cut its lines of supply, especially by bombing.^[5][6][15]
5. To intercept a prohibited commodity, such as a drug shipment.^[5][6][15]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1432–1593) Interdicted.^[5][6]

Word family

• interdiction
• interdictively
• interdictor
• interdictive
• interdictory

Related words

• diction
• indict
• verdict
• dictate

Usage notes

The noun is stressed on the first syllable and the verb on the last.^[16][6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins