machination

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English machynacion,^[2][1] borrowed from Anglo-Norman machination (“plotting, wicked contrivance”),^[3][4] and directly borrowed from Latin māchinātiō (“machine-making, piece of machinery, stratagem”).^[3][5][6] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century,^[4] and Middle French machination had the same sense of plotting.^[3][1] The Latin noun is formed on the past participial stem of māchinor (“to contrive, plot”),^[3][5][2][7] from māchina (“machine, device, trick”), the source of machine.^[5][2][6] The sense "stratagem" was rare in classical Latin, though post-classical sources in Britain have it from 960.^[3] The OED compares Italian macchinazione (“plot, machine, siege engine”) and Catalan maquinació (“plot”), both of the 14th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plot or malicious contrivance: about 1473, in Caxton's translation of Le Fèvre, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.^[3] Barnhart dates the word before 1475, in the senses intrigue, fraud and trick,^[2] and Etymonline to the late 15th century.^[5] Dictionary.com gives a much earlier range, 1375–1425.^[8]

Semantic evolution

English took the word mainly in the Latin and French sense of scheming, first for a single plot, then from about 1550 for the activity of plotting.^[3] Matching the Latin senses "piece of machinery" and "machine-making", 17th-century writers also used it for a machine, especially of war, from Bacon in 1605 until 1680, and for the use or building of machinery from 1641 until 1711.^[3][9] Johnson (1755) knew only the bad sense: artifice, contrivance, malicious scheme, with a quotation from King Lear.^[10] The word is now usually plural and usually implies evil intent,^[3][9][11] while the sense of plotting in general is rare.^[3][12] The verb machinate is a later formation, recorded from 1537.^[3][9]

Timeline

• c. 1473 – a plot, an intrigue.^[3]
• c. 1550 – the action of plotting, in The Complaynt of Scotland.^[3]
• 1605 – a machine or mechanism, in Bacon (obsolete after 1680).^[3]
• 1641 – the use or construction of machinery (obsolete after 1711).^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crafty scheme or intrigue, especially one meant to do harm; usually plural: The minister outlasted the machinations of his rivals.^[11][9][3]
2. (rare) The act of devising plots; scheming.^[11][3][12]
3. (obsolete, 1605–1680) A machine or mechanism.^[3][9]
4. (obsolete, 1641–1711) The use or construction of machinery.^[3][9]

Related words

• machinate
• machine
• machinery

Usage notes

The pronunciation with /ʃ/, from the influence of machine, was recorded in Webster's dictionary of 1961.^[3] A 1931 BBC recommendation of the traditional pronunciation may be indirect evidence that it already existed.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press