intrude

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English intrūden,^[2] borrowed from Latin intrūdō (“to thrust in, force in”),^[2][3][4][5] from in- (“in”) and trūdō (“to thrust, push”),^[3][4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *treud- (“to press, push, squeeze”),^[7][4][6] also the source of Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌸𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (usþriutan, “to vex”) and Old English þrēotan (“to weary, vex, annoy”), and so akin to threat.^[6] Barnhart and Etymonline allow that the verb may instead be, at least in part, a back-formation from intrusion, recorded from about 1385.^[8][7] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford note an earlier spelling entrude in the 16th century,^[9][10] and the OED compares Old French intruire, recorded in 1479.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To take possession of a prebend that is not rightfully one's own: about 1422, in a petition quoted by the MED.^[2][7][8] The OED's record begins in 1534, in an Act of Henry VIII, with the same kind of sense, thrusting oneself into a benefice or office without title.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The earliest uses were legal and ecclesiastical, about offices and benefices, and that sense lasted to 1682.^[3][7] The physical sense of thrusting in, transitive or intransitive, appears in the 1560s,^[7][3] and the now usual sense of coming where one is not wanted in 1573, in a letter of G. Harvey.^[3][7] Weekley observes that the verb was originally transitive and that the current sense grew out of the reflexive "to intrude oneself upon".^[11] From 1592 it could also mean forcing something unwelcome on a person.^[3] Johnson (1755) separated the two constructions, "to force without right or welcome" and "to come in unwelcome by a kind of violence", and quoted Shakespeare, Watts and Pope.^[12] The sense in geology, of rock forced into other rock, appears in 1925.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1422 – to take possession of a prebend or office without right (obsolete by 1682).^[2][3]
• 1534 – the noun intruder.^[8]
• 1562 – to thrust oneself, to make one's way by force (obsolete by 1770).^[3]
• 1563 – to thrust or force something in.^[3]
• 1573 – to come where one is uninvited or unwelcome.^[3][7]
• 1592 – to force something unwelcome on a person.^[3]
• 1594 – to enter forcibly, in Shakespeare's Lucrece (rare and obsolete).^[3]
• 1925 – in geology, to be forced into other rock.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come or go in where one is not invited or wanted; to encroach or trespass: I hope I am not intruding on your dinner.^[5][3][10]
2. Of things, to come in unwelcome: Doubts kept intruding into her thoughts.^[3][10]
3. To put forward or force in something, such as one's views, without invitation: He intruded his opinions into every meeting.^[13][5][3]
4. (geology) To force rock, especially magma, between other rocks; of rock, to be forced in this way.^[13][5][3]
5. (obsolete, 1534–1682) To take an office, right or benefice without title; to usurp.^[3][10]

Word family

• intruder
• intrudingly
• unintruding

Related words

• intrusion
• threat
• thrust
• abstruse
• detrude
• extrude
• obtrude
• protrude

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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins