Etymologically
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mutation

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Pronunciation

  • /mjuˈteɪʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mutacioun,[2][3] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman mutation and mutation (“change”) (in Old French mutacion, late 13th century), and partly borrowed from Latin mūtātiō (“change, alteration”),[4][2][5][3] a noun of action from mūtātus, the past participle of mūtō (“to change”).[4][2][6][7] Etymonline takes the Latin verb from Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“to change, go, move”).[2] Anglo-Norman had the word from 1212, for change, transformation and transfer of ownership.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action or process of changing, change in form or qualities.[4][3] The revised OED and the Middle English Dictionary have it first before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus,[4][3] while Barnhart dates it about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,[5] and the 1989 OED to about 1374.[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle and early modern English the word also meant a change of government or a revolt (from before 1513) and fickleness (from before 1542), both now obsolete;[4][3] the OED thinks the sense "revolt" may owe something to meutacion (“riot”).[4] In music it was the change from one hexachord to another in solmization (1597), and later an organ stop sounding an overtone (1855).[4] In linguistics it named any sound change (1808), and Henry Sweet used it for umlaut, as in i-mutation (1874);[4][2] the change of initial consonants in the Celtic languages was called mutation from 1843.[9] The biological sense, a sudden change that produces new heritable characteristics, is first recorded in 1894, in American English,[5][2] and the OED notes that its later use follows Hugo de Vries's Mutationstheorie (1901).[4] The verb mutate is a back-formation from mutation (1818), used in genetics from 1913.[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined the word simply as change or alteration, quoting Shakespeare's Cymbeline and Bacon.[10]

Timeline

  • before 1398 – the action or process of changing.[4][3]
  • before 1513 – a change of government, revolt (obsolete by 1737).[4]
  • before 1542 – fickleness (obsolete by 1823).[4]
  • 1597 – in music, a change from one hexachord to another.[4]
  • 1685 – in law, an amendment of the charges (obsolete).[4]
  • 1808 – in linguistics, a sound change.[4]
  • 1843 – a change of initial consonant in the Celtic languages.[9]
  • 1855 – an organ mutation stop.[4]
  • 1874 – i-mutation.[2]
  • 1894 – in biology, a heritable change.[5][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (biology) A change in the genes or chromosomes of a cell, which may be passed on to its offspring; also an individual or a feature resulting from such a change.[11][12]
  2. The act or process of changing; a change or alteration: the slow mutation of the town into a suburb.[11][12][4]
  3. (linguistics) A change in a sound caused by a neighbouring sound, especially umlaut in the Germanic languages, or a change of initial consonant in the Celtic languages.[11][9]
  4. (music) In medieval solmization, the change from one hexachord to another.[12][4]
  5. (music) An organ stop whose pipes sound an overtone rather than the note played.[4][9]
  6. (obsolete, before 1513–1737) A change of government; a revolt.[4][9]

Word family

  • mutational
  • mutationally
  • macromutation
  • vowel mutation
  • back mutation
  • frameshift mutation
  • missense mutation
  • point mutation
  • mutable
  • mutagen
  • mutagenesis
  • mutagenic
  • mutant
  • mutate
  • commute
  • permutation
  • transmute
  • mutual

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster