locale

Etymology

It is borrowed from French local,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded in French from 1731,^[2] a noun use of the adjective,^{[2][3][8][4][6]} from Late Latin locālis,^[7] from locus (“a place”).^[8] English first used the form local, and the final -e was added to show the stress on the last syllable.^{[2][5][9][10]} Barnhart, Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English compare the spelling of morale,^[3][8][5][9] while the OED thinks it probably follows locale, the feminine singular of the adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place or region considered in connection with some event or circumstance: 1761, in an Essay on Art of War.^[2] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart give 1772,^[4][3] and Dictionary.com 1765–75.^[11] The spelling locale is dated to 1816 by Barnhart and Etymonline.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has changed little: dictionaries now add the scene or setting of a story to the original sense of a place tied to some event.^[12][4] The spelling took longer to settle: the OED's first edition (1903) still entered it as local and called locale a common but erroneous form,^[2] and Etymonline still calls it a false spelling.^[8]

Timeline

• 1761 – a place considered with reference to events or circumstances, at first also spelled local.^[2][5]
• 1816 – the spelling locale.^[3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place or area, especially one seen in connection with a particular event: Police sealed off the locale of the robbery.^{[4][6][12][2]}
2. The scene or setting of a story: The film's locale is a small fishing port.^[12][4]

Related words

• local
• locality
• locus
• location

Usage notes

Fowler (1926) recommended the form that the OED had called erroneous: "If something happens in a locality, the locality becomes that something's locale, or place of happening."^[2] He also said that the word's right to exist depended on whether locality and scene gave all the shades of meaning required.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt