modify

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English modifien,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French modifier,^[5][4][3] which in French is recorded from about 1355 meaning "to moderate, reduce"^[5] and in Anglo-Norman from the late 13th century.^[6] The French verb continues Latin modificō (“to measure off, limit, restrain, regulate”) (also the deponent modificor),^[5][4][2] made of modus (“measure, manner”) and -ficō, the combining form of faciō (“to make, do”).^[4][7][8] Barnhart supposes a lost Latin adjective *modificus (“regulating, forming according to rule”) between the noun and the verb.^[3] Etymonline and the AHD trace modus to Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”), the root of mode and moderate.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To alter something in the direction of mildness, to make it less severe or extreme: c. 1385, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale.^[5] Barnhart dates the verb to about 1385 in Chaucer with the sense "to alter, amend",^[3] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Weekley notes that in English the verb at first meant to alter in the direction of moderation.^[9] In late Middle English it also meant to limit, restrain or keep within bounds (in Gower, a1393, obsolete by about 1460) and to appease or assuage (in Lydgate, ?a1439).^[5][10] In Scots law it meant to assess or award a payment, especially to fix a parish minister's stipend, from 1448 until the late 19th century;^[5][11][12] Merriam-Webster still records the Scots legal sense.^[2] From 1664 the verb meant to make something distinct by giving it particular characteristics, and in 17th- and 18th-century philosophy to bring a substance into a particular mode of being.^[5][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to change the form or accidents of any thing; to shape".^[13] The usual modern sense, to make partial or minor changes to something without transforming it, is recorded from 1759, in Johnson's own Rasselas;^[5] Hoad dates it to the 18th century.^[14] Grammar took the word in 1728 for a word that limits or qualifies the sense of another, and phonetics in 1845 for changing a vowel by mutation.^[5][10]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – to moderate, make less severe (Chaucer).^[5][3]
• a1393 – to limit, restrain (obsolete).^[5]
• 1448 – (Scots law) to assess or award a payment.^[5]
• 1664 – to make distinct by giving particular characteristics.^[5]
• 1728 – (grammar) to qualify the sense of a word.^[5][10]
• 1759 – to make partial changes to.^[5]
• 1845 – (phonetics) to change a vowel by umlaut.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make partial or minor changes to something; to alter it without changing it completely: The engineers modified the design to cut its weight.
2. To make less extreme or severe; to moderate or tone down: The council modified its original proposal.
3. (grammar) Of a word or phrase, to limit or qualify the meaning of another word, as an adjective does a noun.
4. (linguistics) To change a vowel by umlaut.
5. (Scots law) To fix or award a payment, such as a minister's stipend.

Word family

• modifiability
• modifiable
• overmodify
• premodify
• remodify
• modifier

Related words

• modification
• mode
• moderate
• modest
• model

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
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. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press