persuade

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French persuader (c. 1370) and its source Latin persuādeō (“to persuade, prevail upon”),^[2][3] formed from per- (“through, thoroughly”) and suādeō (“to advise, urge”).^[4][5][6] Barnhart thinks it was in some cases also a back-formation from the earlier persuasion.^[3] The Latin verb shares its root, Proto-Indo-European *swād-, with suave, assuage and sweet, and its negative counterpart gave dissuade.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To induce someone to believe or accept something; to convince: c. 1450, in a translation of Boccaccio's De Claris Mulieribus.^[2] The other sources date the verb later: 1513, in Thomas More's History of King Richard III (Barnhart),^[3] the 1510s (Etymonline)^[8] or the late 15th century (SOED).^[9]

Semantic evolution

"To urge successfully to do something" follows by c. 1487, in Skelton's translation of Diodorus Siculus.^[2] The reflexive "to convince oneself" (about 1541) and the passive be persuaded "be sure" (1547) date from the 16th century.^[2] A thing could once be the object, in the senses "to prove or demonstrate" (c. 1487 to 1715) and "to urge the practice of" (1542 to 1840).^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to bring to any particular opinion".^[10] The weaker sense "to try to induce, to urge" (1525) is now rare outside regional English:^[2] in Yorkshire, Worcestershire and Hampshire dialect it meant to advise strongly, whether or not the advice was taken, and in Suffolk it could be said of an obstacle that deterred, as bushes that persuade people not to break through.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – to convince.^[2]
• c. 1487 – to urge successfully to do.^[2]
• 1513 – Thomas More (Barnhart's first date).^[3]
• 1525 – to try to induce, to urge.^[2]
• 1547 – be persuaded, be sure.^[2]
• 1590 – noun persuade, an argument (to 1630).^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To get someone to do something by reasoning, argument or pleading: She persuaded her brother to sell the van.
2. To cause someone to believe something; to convince.
3. Of a situation or event, to give someone good reason to do something.

Word family

• persuadable
• persuader
• persuadability
• persuadably
• persuadingly
• overpersuade
• persuasion
• persuasive

Related words

• dissuade
• suasion
• suave
• assuage
• sweet

Usage notes

Random House distinguishes persuade from induce: both mean winning someone over to a course of action, but persuade suggests an appeal to reason and understanding, while induce stresses only that the influence succeeded, whether by argument or by the promise of a reward.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
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)
12. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House