necessity

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /nəˈses.ə.ti/, US /nəˈses.ə.t̬i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English necessite, borrowed from Old French necessité (“need, privation, obligation”),^[2][3][4] from Latin necessitās (“compulsion, unavoidableness, destiny”), from necesse (“needful, necessary”) (see necessary).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fact of being inevitably determined: about 1374 in the OED, now obsolete.^[5] The constraining power of circumstances, compulsion: 1382 in the OED, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The condition of being in need, poverty, is also from the late 14th century.^[2] Compulsion grounded in the nature of things is from 1423,^[5] and philosophical and logical necessity from 1587.^[5] Of necessity, unavoidably, is from 1387–8.^[5] The proverb necessity is the mother of invention is quoted from the English author Richard Franck in Etymonline.^[2] In Somerset and Devon dialect necessity was a spirit illicitly distilled from cider dregs.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – inevitability.^[5]
• 1382 – constraint of circumstances.^[5]
• 1387–8 – of necessity.^[5]
• 1423 – natural necessity.^[5]
• 1587 – logical necessity.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Something needed or essential: the necessities of life.
2. The condition of being necessary or unavoidable.
3. A condition of things, such as physical law or social rule, that inevitably requires a result.
4. Urgent need, especially poverty or want.

Word family

• necessitarian
• necessitous
• nonnecessity
• money of necessity

Related words

• necessary
• necessitate
• necessitude

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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)