mode

English has two nouns spelled mode, both from Latin modus “measure, manner”: “manner, way”, with its musical and grammatical senses, taken directly from Latin, and “fashion”, borrowed from French in the 17th century.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /məʊd/, US /moʊd/^[4]

mode¹ manner

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English moede,^[5] from Old French mode and directly borrowed from Latin modus (“measure, extent; proper measure, rhythm, song; way, manner”),^[6][1] in Late Latin also “mood” in grammar and logic,^[6] from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”),^[6][7] the root of mete “to measure”.^[8][5] It is related to mood, model and moderate.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Melodies, strains of music: about 1374 in the OED, of the scales of ancient Greek music,^[10] and about 1380 in Barnhart, in Chaucer's Boece.^[1]

Semantic evolution

In grammar it meant mood, the inflectional category of a verb, from the mid-15th century.^[6][1] In music, a method of dividing the octave, it is from the 1670s for ancient Greek music and by 1721 for the church modes and modern major and minor.^[6][10] “The manner in which a thing is done” is first recorded in 1667 in Barnhart,^[1] and by the 1660s in Etymonline.^[6] In statistics the mode, the most frequent value, came later.^[11][2]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – a melody; a musical scale.^[10]
• mid-15th century – grammatical mood.^[6]
• 1667 – a manner, way.^[1]
• 1721 – in modern music.^[10][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A manner, way or method of doing something: a mode of transport.
2. A given condition of functioning: the camera is in automatic mode.
3. In music, any of certain fixed arrangements of the diatonic tones of an octave, as the major and minor modes.
4. In statistics, the value that occurs most often in a set of data.
5. In grammar, mood.

Word family

• modal
• modality

mode² fashion

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mode (“manner, fashion, style”), 15th century,^[6][1] a specialized use of the French word, from Latin modus (“manner”), that also gave the other mode.^[6][1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Current fashion, prevailing style: about 1645 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate,^[1][2] the 1640s in Etymonline,^[6] 1642 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Modish, fashionable, is from 1660.^[1] A verb to mode it, to follow the fashion, is from 1656.^[10]

Timeline

• 1642 – fashion.^[5]
• 1656 – to mode it.^[10]
• 1660 – modish.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The current or customary fashion or style.

Word family

• modish
• modiste

Related words

• model
• moderate
• moderation
• moderator
• module
• modern
• mood
• modest
• modify
• mete

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin