method

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmeθ.əd/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin methodus (“way of teaching or proceeding”),^[2][3] perhaps through French méthode,^[4][5] from Ancient Greek μέθοδος (méthodos, “pursuit of knowledge, inquiry; originally a following after”),^[2][3] from μετά (metá, “after, in pursuit of”) and ὁδός (hodós, “way, road, journey”),^[2][3] a word of uncertain origin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A prescribed medical treatment for a disease: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[3] the early 15th century in Etymonline^[2] and 1541 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense is obsolete.^[6] The wider sense, any special way of doing things, is first recorded in 1586,^[3][6] the 1580s in Etymonline.^[2] Orderliness, regularity, as in method in his madness, is from the 1610s,^[2] and a complete set of rules for reaching an end from the 1680s.^[2] Methodist meant one who follows a method in 1593,^[3] and was applied to the religious society founded at Oxford in 1729 by John and Charles Wesley,^[3][7] probably from their following a set method of Bible study.^[7] In acting, the Method, associated with Stanislavsky, is from 1923.^[2][6]

Timeline

• before 1425 – a medical treatment.^[3]
• 1586 – a way of doing something.^[3][6]
• 1593 – methodist, one following a method.^[3]
• 1610s – orderliness.^[2]
• 1680s – a system of rules.^[2]
• 1729 – the Methodists at Oxford.^[3]
• 1923 – the Method in acting.^[2][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A way of doing something, especially a regular and systematic one.
2. Orderly arrangement; planning: there is method in his madness.
3. The techniques of a particular field of knowledge.
4. (acting) A technique in which actors identify closely with their characters.

Word family

• methodless

Related words

• methodical
• methodology
• Methodist
• exodus
• odometer
• episode
• period
• synod

Usage notes

Method suggests a detailed, logically ordered plan, system an orderly method with many parts, routine a habitual procedure, and manner, mode, fashion and way are more general.^[8]

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 e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin