makeshift

Etymology

It comes from the phrase “make shift” or “make a shift”, to manage with what is at hand,^[2][3][4][5] formed from English make + shift.^[6] For the formation, Etymonline compares makeweight.^[6] Shift here means an expedient or means to an end, a sense recorded from the 16th century,^[6][2] and Ayto sees in the word a trace of the original meaning of the verb shift, Old English sciftan (“to arrange”).^[7] Etymonline dates the phrase “make shift”, to make efforts, to the mid-15th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who lives by shifts; a schemer or rogue: 1554, a sense obsolete by 1608 in the OED.^[2][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first makeshift was a person, a shifty rogue, and the adjective likewise meant "shifty, roguish" in 1592.^[2][4] The modern meaning came through the adjective: from 1683, in Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, makeshift described something that serves as a temporary substitute, often a poor one.^[2][6] The noun followed with the sense of such a substitute, which the OED finds in Charles Lamb in 1822 and Etymonline by 1802,^[2][6] and the action or state of making shift from 1870.^[2]

Timeline

• 1554 – a shifty person, a rogue (obsolete by 1608).^[2][3]
• 1592 – adjective, shifty, roguish (obsolete).^[2]
• 1683 – adjective, serving as a temporary substitute; improvised.^[2][6]
• 1822 – noun, a temporary substitute, an expedient, in Charles Lamb.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1802.^[6]
• 1824 – adjective, characterized by makeshifts.^[2]
• 1870 – the action of making shift; improvisation.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Serving as a temporary substitute, often a rough or improvised one: They slept in a makeshift shelter of branches.^[3][2][4]

Noun

1. A temporary substitute or expedient.^[3][2][4]
2. The practice of making do; improvisation.^[3][2]
3. (obsolete, 1554–1608) A shifty person, a rogue.^[2][3][4]

Related words

• make
• shift
• makeweight

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black