onset

Etymology

It is formed from English on- + set, after the phrasal verb set on, to attack.^[2][3][4][5] Etymonline and Barnhart describe it as on and the noun set,^[6][7] and Etymonline notes that the verb phrase to set something on someone is recorded from about 1300, first of setting a dog on someone.^[6] The OED compares the earlier noun onsetting^[2] and a verb onset, used in Old English for "to set on, bestow" and "to oppress" and again from 1522 to 1649 for "to attack".^[2] Middle English also had the simple noun set, an attack, from the mid-14th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An attack or assault, especially a military one: before 1522, in Douglas's translation of Virgil's Aeneid.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1522,^[3] while Barnhart and Etymonline give 1535 and the 1530s.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense "attack" was extended in 1566 to a sudden attack of pain or fever and to a fierce argument.^[2] From 1561 the word also meant the start or beginning of something,^[2][7][6] usually of something unpleasant,^[2][8] and in the 1580s it was used of the coming of a disease or a calamity.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "attack; storm; assault; first brunt" as the first sense.^[9] In phonetics, from 1933 (in Bloomfield), the onset is the start of the articulation of a speech sound, and also the first part of a syllable.^[2][3]

Timeline

• before 1522 – an attack, an assault.^[2]
• 1561 – a beginning, a start.^[2][7]
• 1566 – a sudden attack of pain or fever; a fierce criticism.^[2]
• 1580s – the coming of a disease or calamity.^[6]
• 1933 – phonetics, the start of a speech sound; the first part of a syllable.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The beginning of something, especially something unpleasant: the onset of a cold winter.
2. An attack or assault.
3. (phonetics) The start of the articulation of a speech sound; the consonants before the vowel of a syllable.

Related words

• outset
• set on

Usage notes

A separate Scots word onset, a farmhouse with its outbuildings, is recorded from 1423; the OED derives it from on- and a noun set, a dwelling, either from Old English or from Scandinavian.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.