output

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈaʊt.pʊt/^[1]

Etymology

It is from English out- + put,^[2][3] formed after the verb phrase put out.^[4] SOED compares the earlier input.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quantity of material produced in a given time: 1839 in Etymonline, 1858 in the OED.^[2][5] Until about 1880 it was a technical term of the iron and coal trade.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Energy produced by a device or system is from 1884,^[2][5] and in computing, the data or results produced by a computer, from 1948.^[5] The place where a system delivers its output is from 1933.^[5] The verb is from the mid-14th century, originally “to expel, exclude”, a sense now obsolete except in Scots;^[2][3] the meaning “to produce” is from 1858.^[2]

Timeline

• mid-14th century – verb, to expel.^[2]
• 1839 – the amount produced.^[2]
• 1858 – verb, to produce.^[2]
• 1884 – energy from a device.^[2][5]
• 1948 – in computing.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The amount of goods or work produced in a given time.
2. The act of producing; production.
3. The energy or power delivered by a machine or circuit.
4. (computing) Information produced by a computer.

Verb

1. To produce something, especially data from a computer.

Word family

• cardiac output

Related words

• input
• put

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 g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press