modicum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin modicum (“a small or modest amount; a little way, a short time”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the neuter of modicus (“moderate, having a proper measure; scanty, small”) used as a noun,^[2][3][7][8] formed from modus (“measure, extent, manner”) and the suffix -icus.^[2][9] The base noun is also the source of mode,^[4][5] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”).^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small amount of food or drink: about 1400, in a manuscript of Langland's Piers Plowman.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to about 1470, in Scottish use,^[4][10] and Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the late 15th century.^[3][6][11]

Semantic evolution

The word spread from food and drink to money and property (1583) and then to immaterial things in general (1606).^[2] It was also used humorously in the 17th century for a small person and sometimes for a young woman, as in Middleton and Dekker's Roaring Girl (1611),^[2] and in slang from 1660 to 1732 for the female genitals.^[2][12]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a small amount of food or drink.^[2]
• c. 1470 – in Scottish use.^[4]
• 1583 – a small amount of money or property.^[2]
• 1606 – a small amount of anything, especially of something immaterial.^[2]
• 1611 – a small person, a young woman (obsolete by 1632).^[2]
• 1660 – in slang, the female genitals (obsolete by 1732).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small or limited amount of something: He showed not even a modicum of remorse.^{[13][9][2][6]}
2. (obsolete, slang, 1660–1732) The female genitals.^[2][12]

Related words

• mode
• moderate
• modest
• modify
• mete

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 m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins