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
- An unpleasant physical feeling caused by injury or illness.
- Mental or emotional suffering; distress.
- (plural) Great care or effort: take pains.
- (informal) An annoying person or thing.
- (archaic) Punishment, now only in on pain of.
Verb
- 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
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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
- ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press