pain

Pronunciation

• IPA: /peɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English peyne, borrowed from Old French peine (“difficulty, woe, suffering; punishment”),^[2][3][4] from Latin poena (“punishment, penalty”), in Late Latin also “torment, suffering”,^[2][4][5] from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “penalty, payment for blood spilled”),^[2][3][6] related to Greek τίνειν (tínein, “to pay”),^[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *kwei- (“to pay, atone, compensate”).^[2][4][3] Latin poena is also the source of penal, penalty and pine “to long for”, which is a doublet.^[8][3] The verb is Middle English peynen, from Old French pener.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Punishment, penalty”: about 1280^[3] or 1297.^[9] Etymonline dates peine “the agony suffered by Christ” to the late 13th century, and punishment for a crime, including fines, to about 1300.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The condition one feels when hurt, the opposite of pleasure, is from about 1300, including mental suffering and grief,^[2][9] as are the torments of hell.^[2] Bodily suffering in particular is from 1377,^[9] and the pains of childbirth from before 1300.^[9] The old sense “punishment” survives in on pain of death.^[2][9] “Effort, exertion” is from the late 14th century,^[2] and pains, “great care”, from 1528, in Tyndale.^[3] To put out of one's pain is from 1572.^[9] No pain, no gain is associated with exercise from the 1980s, but No Pains, No Gains is the title of a 1648 poem by Robert Herrick.^[8] Pain in the neck is from 1924, and a pain, an annoying person, from the 1930s.^[2][8] Painkiller is from 1845.^[2] The verb meant “to strive” about 1300, “to punish” before 1375 and “to cause pain” about 1375.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1280 – punishment.^[3]
• c. 1300 – suffering; verb, to strive.^[2][3]
• c. 1375 – verb, to cause pain.^[3]
• 1377 – bodily suffering.^[9]
• 1528 – pains, great care.^[3]
• 1648 – No Pains, No Gains.^[8]
• 1845 – painkiller.^[2]
• 1924 – pain in the neck.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An unpleasant physical feeling caused by injury or illness.
2. Mental or emotional suffering; distress.
3. (plural) Great care or effort: take pains.
4. (informal) An annoying person or thing.
5. (archaic) Punishment, now only in on pain of.

Verb

1. To cause pain or distress to.

Word family

• painless
• painlessly
• painlessness
• afterpain
• painstaking
• painkiller
• growing pains
• pain in the neck

Related words

• pained
• painful
• penal
• penalty
• punish
• pine
• subpoena

Usage notes

An unrelated pain, “bread”, from French, from Latin pānem, was frequent in Piers Plowman and is now used of French bread, as in pain perdu.^[9][10]

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 k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press