intern

intern¹ internal; to confine

Etymology

The adjective meaning internal is borrowed from Middle French interne,^[2][3][4] or directly Latin internus (“situated inside, internal, domestic”), which the OED takes as its source.^[5][4] The Latin adjective is formed from in (“in”) and the suffix -ternus, as in externus and aeternus.^[5][3] The verb meaning to confine follows French interner (“to send to the interior, confine”),^{[6][7][2][8][3][5]} recorded in French from 1838 or earlier and formed from the adjective interne;^[5][6] the OED treats the English verb as formed from the adjective after the French one.^[5] A rare earlier verb, to engage in inward contemplation (1606), followed Italian internare.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the mind or soul, internal: 1546, in G. Joye, a sense obsolete after 1683.^[5] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to about 1500,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the early 16th century.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective meant situated on the inside from before 1560 (archaic by the 1860s), intrinsic from 1612, in Ben Jonson's Alchemist, and of a country's domestic affairs from 1640, in Howell;^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "inward; intestine; not foreign", quoting Howell.^[9] It was replaced by internal.^[5] The verb in its current sense, to confine a person within set limits, is recorded from 1866, in the Pall Mall Gazette,^[5][6][7][2] originally of obliging someone to live within a prescribed area, later especially for political or military reasons;^[5] internment followed in 1870 and internee in 1918.^[6] In the United States the verb was also used from 1884 to 1895 of sending goods into the interior of a country.^[5]

Timeline

• 1546 – adjective, of the mind or soul, internal (obsolete by 1683).^[5]
• before 1560 – adjective, situated on the inside.^[5]
• 1606 – verb, to engage in inward contemplation (rare).^[5]
• 1640 – adjective, of a country's domestic affairs.^[5]
• 1866 – verb, to confine within prescribed limits.^[5][6][2]
• 1870 – internment.^[6]
• 1918 – internee.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To confine or detain foreign citizens, prisoners of war, ships and the like within set limits, especially during a war: The crew was interned in a neutral port until the armistice.^[10][2][5]

Noun

1. A person who is interned; an internee.^[2][10]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Internal.^[2][5][3]

Word family

• internment
• internee

intern² trainee, junior doctor

Etymology

The trainee is borrowed from French interne (“resident pupil; assistant doctor”), the noun use of the French adjective meaning internal,^{[7][2][6][11]} from Latin internus (“within, inward”).^[7][11] The OED treats the noun together with the adjective, and takes the medical sense from the French noun for a medical student who works as a resident assistant physician in a hospital (1818).^[5] It is also spelled interne.^{[6][2][10][3]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A person living in an institution, especially a boarder at a school, and formerly a hospital inpatient: 1723, in a letter of the Countess of Moray, a sense now rare.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense, an assistant resident physician or surgeon in a hospital, usually a student or recent graduate, appears in 1827 in the Lancet, at first mostly of French hospitals;^[5] Barnhart and Etymonline date it from 1879 as an American word,^[6][7] and Merriam-Webster from about 1879.^[2] The use for any student or trainee who works, sometimes unpaid, to gain practical experience began in North America with trainee teachers in 1924,^[5] and is dated 1963 in Etymonline.^[7] The OED records the verb, to serve as an intern, from 1906 of medical graduates and in 1955 of other trainees;^[5] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1928 and Etymonline to 1933.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1723 – a resident pupil, a boarder; an inpatient.^[5]
• 1827 – an assistant resident doctor in a hospital.^[5]
• 1879 – the same sense in American English.^[6][7][2]
• 1906 – verb, to serve as a medical intern.^[5]
• 1924 – a trainee teacher; later any trainee.^[5]
• 1955 – verb, of a student or trainee, to work as an intern.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A student or recent graduate who works, sometimes without pay, under supervision to gain practical experience in a profession: He spent the summer as an intern at a publishing house.^[2][5][10]
2. (chiefly US and Canada) A medical graduate in the first year of practical training in a hospital; a junior doctor.^[10][2][5]
3. (rare) A pupil who lives at a school; a boarder.^[5]

Verb

1. To work or serve as an intern: She interned at the city hospital before her residency.^[10][2][5]

Word family

• internship