materiel

Etymology

It is borrowed from French matériel (“material; equipment”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the noun use of the adjective of the same form, meaning material or physical,^{[3][5][7][8][9]} from Middle French materiel^[6] (Old French materiel), a learned borrowing from Late Latin māteriālis (“of matter”), from māteria (“matter, substance”).^[4][7] English had earlier borrowed the same French adjective as material, and Barnhart calls the two doublets.^[3][4] In French the noun is recorded in the military sense from 1799, and in the sense of technique from 1840, though probably earlier.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The mechanical or formal part of an art, its technique: 1814, in the Edinburgh Review.^[2][4] Etymonline gives the same year, for the totality of things used in carrying out a complex art or technique.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Soon after, the word was used for whatever is worked on or used in an undertaking, one's stock-in-trade (1821), a sense now rare.^[2] The military sense, the equipment and supplies of an army or navy as distinct from its personnel, is recorded from 1819,^[2][3][6] and Barnhart dates the sense "equipment, supplies" to 1827.^[4] This became the main meaning, and the word is now used of the equipment of any organization, though especially of armed forces.^[6][10][9] It is spelt both materiel and matériel;^[6][10][4] the OED and the Shorter Oxford use the accented form,^[2][9] and Weekley noted that the French word was used in contrast to personnel.^[11]

Timeline

• 1814 – the mechanical or formal part of an art; technique.^[2][4][3]
• 1819 – the equipment and supplies of an army or navy, as distinct from its personnel.^[2][3][6] Barnhart dates the sense "equipment, supplies" to 1827.^[4]
• 1821 – that which is worked on or used in an undertaking; stock-in-trade.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The equipment, apparatus and supplies used by an organization, especially by an army or other armed force, as distinct from its personnel: The convoy carried fuel, spare parts and other materiel to the front.^[6][10][2]
2. Whatever is worked on or made use of in an undertaking; stock-in-trade (rare).^[2][9]
3. The mechanical or formal part of an art; technique (rare).^[2][9]

Related words

• material
• matter

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray