modal

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French modal and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin modālis (“of or relating to a mode”),^[2][3][4] from Latin modus (“measure, manner, way”) and -ālis.^[5][4][6][7] Most dictionaries give the Medieval Latin source alone.^{[8][5][7][9][10]} The OED notes that Anglo-Norman modal was used in law before 1377 of a writ containing provisos, and that the Middle French word is found from 1546, first in logic,^[4][11] while the Medieval Latin adjective was a term of logic from the 12th century.^[4] In Late Latin modus also meant "mood" in grammar and logic.^[2] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace modus to Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”).^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In logic, of a proposition that affirms or denies possibility, impossibility, necessity or contingency: 1569, in James Sanford's translation of Agrippa's Of the Vanitie and Uncertaintie of Artes and Sciences.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word spread from logic to other fields where mode was a technical term: law, of a legacy or contract stating how it was to take effect (1590);^[4] music, of a mode (1597), now especially of a mode other than the major and minor;^[4][2] and philosophy and theology, of form or manner as opposed to substance (1625).^[4][3] Johnson (1755) gave only this last sense.^[12] The grammatical sense, of the mood of a verb, is dated by Barnhart and Etymonline to John Horne Tooke's Diversions of Purley (1798),^[3][2] and by the OED to an 1805 edition of the same work.^[4] Later technical senses include statistics, of the most frequent value (1898), geology (1902), sociology, as in modal personality (1944), transport, of modes of travel (1967), and computing, of a dialogue box that must be closed before anything else can be done (1985).^[4] The noun meant a modal proposition from 1599, and a modal verb from 1960.^[4]

Timeline

• 1569 – logic: of a proposition of possibility or necessity.^[4][3][5]
• 1590 – law: of a legacy or contract, stating the manner of its effect.^[4]
• 1597 – music: of a mode.^[4]
• 1599 – noun, a modal proposition.^[4]
• 1625 – of form or manner, not substance.^[4][3]
• 1798 – grammar: of the mood of a verb.^[3][2] The OED's first record is from 1805.^[4]
• 1898 – statistics: of the mode, most frequent.^[4]
• 1960 – noun, a modal verb.^[4]
• 1985 – computing: of a dialogue box that must be dealt with first.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (grammar) Of or expressing the mood of a verb, such as possibility, necessity or permission; in English the modal auxiliaries include can, may, must and should.^[13][4][5]
2. (logic) Qualifying the truth of a proposition as necessary, possible or contingent.^[13][5][4]
3. (music) Of or using a mode, especially one of the church modes rather than the major or minor scale.^[5][4]
4. Of mode, manner or form, as opposed to substance.^[13][4]
5. (statistics) Of the mode; occurring most frequently in a sample.^[4]
6. (computing) Of a dialogue box or window that must be answered or closed before the user can do anything else.^[4]
7. (law) Of a contract or legacy: stating the manner in which it is to take effect.^[5][4]

Noun

1. (grammar) A modal verb or other modal form.^[5][4]
2. (logic) A modal proposition.^[5][4]

Word family

• modally
• modality
• unimodal
• multimodal
• bimodal
• intermodal
• nonmodal

Related words

• mode
• model
• moderate
• moderation
• moderator
• module
• modulus
• mood

Usage notes

The name of the rayon fibre modal, made mainly from beechwood pulp, has a separate source: it was formed in English from mod- of modulus and the suffix -al, after a Croatian name for viscose fabrics that stay strong when wet, and is recorded from 1977.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins