listen

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈlɪs.ən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English listnen, also lusnen,^[2][3] from Old English hlysnan (“to listen, hear; to attend to”),^[4][5][2][6] from Proto-Germanic *hlusinōn,^[4] the source also of Dutch luisteren, Old High German hlosēn (“to listen”) and German lauschen.^[4][7] It is from Proto-Indo-European *kleu- (“to hear”),^[4][5] and Merriam-Webster compares Old English hlūd, the source of loud.^[3] The -t- is from the influence of the related Middle English listen “to hear, hearken”, now list, from Old English hlystan,^[4][2][5][8] and Klein sees the word as a blend of hlysnan and that Middle English verb.^[7] Compare glisten.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Transitive, “to hear attentively, pay attention to”: about 950 in the OED.^[9] Barnhart dates lusnen to probably about 1150, lustnen to before 1200 and listnen to before 1250.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense, “to make an effort to hear”, is from about 1200.^[4][9] Listen to, “to give heed to”, is from about 1290.^[9] To listen in is from 1905, originally of radio broadcasts,^[4] and also meant listening secretly to a telephone conversation.^[9] The American “to sound, strike one as”, as in that listens good, is from 1908.^[9] The noun, an act of listening, is from 1788, in on the listen “alert”.^[4][9][3]

Timeline

• c. 950 – to hear attentively.^[9]
• c. 1200 – to try to hear.^[4][9]
• c. 1290 – listen to.^[9]
• 1788 – noun, on the listen.^[4]
• 1905 – listen in.^[4]
• 1908 – to sound, in American use.^[9]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make an effort to hear something.
2. To pay attention; to heed.
3. To listen to a broadcast: listen in.

Noun

1. (informal) An act of listening.

Word family

• listener
• unlistening
• listenable
• listenership
• relisten
• unlistenable
• listen in
• listening post

Related words

• list
• hearken
• loud
• glisten

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press