Etymologically
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normal

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈnɔː.məl/, US /ˈnɔːr.məl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English normal,[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin normālis (“in conformity with rule, normal”),[4][3] in classical Latin “made according to a carpenter's square”,[4][2][3] from Latin norma (“carpenter's square; rule, pattern”),[4][2] a word of unknown origin according to Etymonline,[4] while Merriam-Webster derives it, probably, from Greek gnōmona, the accusative of gnṓmōn “pointer on a sundial, carpenter's square”.[5] It is related to norm.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Typical, common”, of a verb, in grammar: before 1500, in the Middle English translation of Donatus,[3] or about 1500.[4]

Semantic evolution

In geometry normal meant “at a right angle, perpendicular” from 1650[6] or the 1640s,[4] and a perpendicular from 1727.[4] The general meaning “conforming to the usual type, regular” is attested from 1828, but Barnhart thinks it must have been used earlier.[3][4][6] As a noun, “the usual state”, it is from 1890.[4] A normal school, a training college for teachers, from 1835, translates French école normale (1794), meant to set a standard.[4] “Heterosexual” is by 1914.[4] Normalcy meant being at right angles in 1857, and was popularized in its general sense by President Warren G. Harding in 1920.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1500 – typical (grammar).[3][4]
  • 1650 – at a right angle.[6]
  • 1727 – noun, a perpendicular.[4]
  • 1828 – usual, regular.[3][4]
  • 1835 – normal school.[4]
  • 1890 – noun, the usual state.[4]
  • 1920 – normalcy popularized by Harding.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Usual, typical or expected; conforming to a standard.
  2. Healthy; without physical or mental problems.
  3. (geometry) At right angles.
  4. (chemistry) Of a solution, containing one gram equivalent of solute per litre.

Noun

  1. The usual or expected state or level: back to normal.
  2. (geometry) A perpendicular line.

Word family

  • normally
  • normality
  • antinormal
  • binormal
  • decanormal
  • decinormal
  • hypernormal
  • lognormal
  • norm
  • normalcy
  • normalize
  • abnormal
  • enormous
  • paranormal
  • know

Usage notes

Normal stresses keeping to an established standard, while regular stresses an unchanging pattern and typical having the features of a group.[7]

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin