overtake

Etymology

It is formed from Middle English over- + taken.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} The OED compares the phrasal verb take over and the earlier oftaken, and Etymonline notes that the OED's editors found the sense of over- in it "not so clear".^[2][3] The verb take goes back to late Old English tacan (“to grip, seize”), from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse taka (“to take, grasp”).^[3] Old English had oferniman (“to take away, seize”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To get at, reach, or hit: about 1225, in the life of Saint Juliana.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 13th century in the sense "to come up to, catch in pursuit",^[3] which the OED first finds in the Ancrene Riwle, before 1250.^[2]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline the word first referred to running down and catching a fugitive or a hunted animal, as the OED (1989) put it.^[3] Weekley likewise derives it from catching a fugitive, comparing the sense of surprise.^[9] From the late 14th century it was used of night, storms or misfortune coming upon someone unexpectedly,^[3][2][4] and about 1400 it began to be used of feelings overpowering a person.^[2] Medieval senses such as to arrest, to convict in court, to understand and to accomplish a task, the last two mostly Scottish, have died out.^[2] From 1840, often in economics, it came to mean to become greater or more successful than;^[2] the sense "to pass a vehicle travelling in the same direction" is now its usual one, especially in Britain.^[2][10] The noun, an act of overtaking, appeared in 1903.^[2] In Scotland, Ireland and parts of England overtaken meant drunk, and in Scots owertane also meant taken aback.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – to reach, to hit (obsolete by 1680).^[2]
• before 1250 – to catch up with someone going the same way.^[2][3]
• before 1325 – to seize or arrest (obsolete).^[2]
• c. 1390 – of misfortune or illness, to come upon suddenly.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – to overpower with emotion.^[2]
• 1840 – to become greater or more successful than.^[2]
• 1903 – noun, an act of overtaking.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To catch up with and pass someone or something moving in the same direction, especially another vehicle: The cyclist overtook two buses on the hill.^{[10][7][5][2]}
2. To catch up with: We overtook the walkers at the bridge.^[10][5]
3. To become greater or more successful than; to surpass: Online sales soon overtook those in the shops.^[10][5][2]
4. Of night, a storm or misfortune: to come upon someone suddenly or unexpectedly: Darkness overtook them on the moor.^[10][2][4]
5. To overwhelm someone with a feeling, usually in the passive.^[2]

Noun

1. An act of overtaking, especially of another vehicle.^[2]

Related words

• take
• undertake

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 n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)