move

Pronunciation

• IPA: /muːv/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English moven (also meven),^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mover, Old French movoir,^[4][2][5] from Latin movēre (“to move, set in motion; to remove, disturb”),^[4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *meuə- (“to push away”).^[4][6] Proposed relatives include Greek ἀμεύσασθαι (ameúsasthai, “to surpass”) and Lithuanian máuti (“to strip off”).^[2][3][5] The Latin verb is also the source of mobile, moment, motion, motive, motor, promote and remote.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To change one's place or posture, to stir: late 13th century,^[4] about 1275.^[2] Also in the late 13th century, “to stir up, rouse to action”, of the feelings or the mind.^[4]

Semantic evolution

“To go from one place to another” is from about 1300, and the transitive “to change the position of, set in motion” from the late 14th century.^[4] “To affect someone emotionally” is from the early 14th century, and “to prompt someone to do something” from the late 14th century.^[4] The sense “to propose formally”, as a motion in an assembly, dates from the early 15th century.^[4] The noun first meant a proposal in the mid-15th century, a sense now obsolete,^[4][8] then a move in chess or draughts from 1656,^[2][9] an act of moving from 1827, in Disraeli's Vivian Grey,^[2][4] and a change of residence by 1853.^[4] On the move is from 1779 and get a move on is American, from 1888.^[4] People have been prepared to move heaven and earth since the 1790s and to move with the times since 1875.^[7] Arthur O'Shaughnessy called poets “the movers and shakers of the world” in 1873, and movers and shakers came to mean powerful people in the 1950s.^[7] Moving pictures appeared in 1896 and movies by 1909.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – to stir, change place.^[2][4]
• c. 1300 – to go from place to place.^[4]
• early 14th century – to affect emotionally.^[4]
• early 15th century – to propose formally.^[4]
• mid-15th century – noun, a proposal.^[4]
• 1656 – a move in a game.^[2][9]
• 1827 – an act of moving (Disraeli).^[2]
• 1853 – a change of residence.^[4]
• 1888 – get a move on.^[4]
• 1950s – movers and shakers.^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To change position or place; to go from one point to another.
2. To change the place or position of; to set in motion.
3. To go to live or work in another place; to relocate.
4. To progress or advance: things are moving fast.
5. To stir the feelings of; to affect emotionally.
6. To prompt to action; to rouse.
7. To propose formally in a meeting: move an amendment.
8. Of goods, to be sold.

Noun

1. An act of moving; a change of position.
2. A change of residence or place of work.
3. In a board game, the act of moving a piece, or a player's turn to do so.
4. An action taken to achieve an aim; a manoeuvre.

Word family

• moveless
• outmove

Related words

• mobile
• moment
• motion
• motive
• motor
• promote
• remote
• remove
• movie

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster