obtain

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əbˈteɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English obteinen, borrowed from Middle French obtenir and directly from Latin obtinēre (“to hold, take hold of, acquire”),^[2][3][4] from ob- (here perhaps intensive) and tenēre (“to hold”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[2] It is related to tenant and contain.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To get or acquire: about 1412, spelt opteenen, in Hoccleve's Regement of Princes, according to Barnhart, and about 1425 in the OED.^[3][5] Etymonline has the early 15th century, with the senses “inherit, gain, conquer”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

To win a battle or contest is from before 1470, and the intransitive “to win, prevail” from about 1425, now obsolete.^[5] The sense “to be established, be customary”, as in the rules that obtain here, is from the 1610s.^[2][6] Obtainable is from 1617.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1412 – to acquire.^[3]
• c. 1425 – to prevail (obsolete).^[5]
• 1610s – to be customary.^[2]
• 1617 – obtainable.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To get or acquire something, especially by effort.
2. (formal) To be established, accepted or in force.

Word family

• obtainable
• obtainer
• obtainability
• obtainment
• preobtain
• reobtain
• unobtained

Related words

• tenant
• contain
• retain
• detain
• maintain
• sustain

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 f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press