Etymologically
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necessity

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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

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)