opportune

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English opportune,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French opportun (“suitable, fitting”),^[4][3] which others call Old French,^{[5][6][7][8][2]} recorded from about 1355,^[4] and directly borrowed from Latin opportūnus (“fit, convenient, timely”).^[4][5][6][2] Anglo-Norman has the adjective from 1382.^[9] The Latin adjective was originally a sailors' word for a wind blowing towards harbour.^[4][10][11] Most dictionaries derive it from the phrase ob portum veniēns (“coming toward a port”),^[5][6][7][3] with ob (“toward”) and portus (“harbour”), the source of port,^[5][7][3][8] and the American Heritage Dictionary carries the noun back to the root Proto-Indo-European *per-.^[7] The OED instead forms it from ob- and Portūnus, the name of the protecting god of harbours, probably an adjective at first.^[4][10] Dictionary.com takes the second part as the stem of the Latin noun in its sense "access".^[12] Compare Italian opportuno, Spanish oportuno and Portuguese oportuno.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Suitable, convenient, of a time or a place: the OED's first records are from Lydgate's Troy Book, about 1425.^[4][2] Barnhart cites an earlier Lydgate poem, Reson and Sensuallyte, probably about 1408,^[6] and Etymonline gives about 1400.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In English the word has been used since medieval times of what comes at a good or convenient time,^[11] and the Middle English Dictionary glosses it as convenient, appropriate, suitable or favourable.^[2] Two 15th-century senses have died out: "advantageous, useful" (before 1475 to 1658) and "open or liable to attack" (before 1500 to 1667), the latter in Milton's "The Woman opportune to all attempts".^[4][10] From about 1425 the word also described an event or action fitting its circumstances, and in later use chiefly one happening at a favourable moment.^[4][10] Johnson (1755) defined it with a row of near-synonyms led by seasonable, and quotes Bacon's "an opportune death".^[13] Thackeray used it in 1853 for something adopted on grounds of expediency, a rare sense that looks towards opportunism.^[4][10] The OED also records a verb made from the adjective, from 1606, including in the 20th century a use by confusion with importune and another, by association with opportunity, to grant the chance.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – of a time or a place, appropriate or convenient; of an event, fitting or favourable.^[4][2]
• before 1475 – advantageous, useful (obsolete after 1658).^[4][10]
• before 1500 – liable or open to attack or injury (obsolete after 1667).^[4][10]
• 1606 – verb, to have the opportunity (obsolete, and rare).^[4]
• 1667 – adverb, opportunely (obsolete after 1882).^[4]
• 1853 – adopted for reasons of expediency.^[4][10]
• 1941 – verb, to importune.^[4]
• 1980 – verb, to grant the opportunity.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Happening at a suitable or advantageous time; timely: Her offer of a lift could not have been more opportune.^[3][14][10]
2. Fit or convenient for a particular purpose or occasion: They waited for an opportune moment to leave.^[3][14][4]
3. (rare) Adopted for reasons of expediency.^[4][10]
4. (obsolete, before 1475–1658) Advantageous, useful.^[4][3][10]
5. (obsolete, before 1500–1667) Open or liable to attack or injury; exposed.^[4][3][10]

Adverb

1. (obsolete, 1667–1882) Opportunely.^[4][10]

Word family

• opportunely
• opportuneness
• opportunism
• opportunist
• unopportune

Related words

• opportunity
• port
• importune
• inopportune

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins