Etymologically
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liquid

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈlɪk.wɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English liquide, borrowed from Old French liquide (“liquid, running”) and directly from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid, moist”),[2][3][4] from liquēre (“to be fluid”), related to līquī “to melt, flow”,[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *wleikʷ- (“to flow, run”).[2][3] It is related to liquor.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a substance, flowing, neither solid nor gaseous: 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible.[7][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Of light or air, clear and bright like water, is from 1590,[7] and of sounds, flowing and pure, from before 1637, in Ben Jonson.[3][7] The noun first meant a liquid consonant, the sound of l or r, from 1530, translating Latin liquidae, itself from Greek hygrá;[3][2] a liquid substance is from 1708.[2][3] In finance, of assets easily turned into cash, it is from 1818, from earlier Scots law use for debts that had been proved.[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1879.[3]

Timeline

  • 1382 – flowing.[7]
  • 1530 – a liquid consonant.[3]
  • 1590 – clear, bright.[7]
  • 1708 – a liquid substance.[2]
  • 1818 – of assets.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A substance such as water or oil that flows freely and has no fixed shape.
  2. (phonetics) A consonant such as l or r.

Adjective

  1. In the form of a liquid; not solid or a gas.
  2. Clear, bright and smooth: liquid eyes, liquid notes.
  3. (finance) Easily turned into cash: liquid assets.

Word family

  • liquidly
  • liquidness
  • liquidity
  • liquid compass
  • liquidate
  • liquidation
  • liquor
  • liquefy
  • liquify
  • liqueur

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 f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press