obey
Pronunciation
Etymology
It is inherited from Middle English obeien,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman obeir (in Old French also obeir, from the 12th century),[4][5] from Latin oboediō (“to listen to, pay attention, obey”) (also obēdiō),[4][6] formed from ob- (“towards”) and audiō (“to hear”).[3][7] By classical times the figurative sense "obey" had largely replaced "listen to" in Latin.[7] Weekley compares German gehorchen (“to obey”), formed on horchen (“to hearken”).[8]
Earliest recorded meaning
To do what one is commanded by a person, to submit to someone's rule: before 1325, in a Middle English life of St Wulfstan.[4] Barnhart dates the verb probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder,[6] and Merriam-Webster to the 14th century.[9]
Semantic evolution
The intransitive use, "to do as one is told", appears in Chaucer's Monk's Tale (c. 1375), and "to follow (a principle or law)" and "to carry out (a command)" in Gower's Confessio Amantis (before 1393).[4] Chaucer used the verb 35 times and Gower 45.[10] From the 15th century it was also said of things and involuntary agents responding to an impulse or force, as a ship to its helm.[4] Senses that died out include "to do obeisance, bow" (before 1393 to 1516) and "to submit oneself" (c. 1390 to 1500).[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to pay submission to; to comply with, from reverence to authority".[11] A short-lived noun, in the phrase at his obey "at his command", is recorded in 1584.[4]
Timeline
- a1325 – to do the bidding of (a person).[4]
- c. 1375 – intransitive, to do as one is told (Chaucer).[4]
- a1393 – to comply with a command; to follow a law or principle (Gower).[4]
- c. 1425 – of things, to respond to an impulse (Lydgate).[4]
- 1584 – noun, in at his obey.[4]
- 1755 – in Johnson's Dictionary.[11]
Modern meaning
Verb
- To do what a person or authority commands; to submit to.
- To carry out an order or instruction.
- To act in keeping with a principle or natural law; of things, to respond to a force or control: The kite obeyed every tug of the string.
- (intransitive) To do as one is told; to be obedient.
Word family
- obeyer
- obeyable
- obeyingly
- unobeyed
- unobeying
Related words
- obedience
- obedient
- obeisance
- audible
- audience
- disobey
Usage notes
In the traditional Church of England marriage service the wife promised to "love, cherish and obey" her husband, and She who must be obeyed is the sorceress Ayesha in H. Rider Haggard's novel She (1887).[12]
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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)
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
- ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
- ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
- ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press