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
- To get or acquire something, especially by effort.
- (formal) To be established, accepted or in force.
Word family
- obtainable
- obtainer
- obtainability
- obtainment
- preobtain
- reobtain
- unobtained
Related words
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press