petrify

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin petrificō (“to convert into stone”), according to the revised OED, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[2][3][4] Barnhart, Hoad, Klein and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take it as borrowed from Middle French pétrifier.^[5][6][7][8] The OED dates the Latin verb from the 13th century in British sources, and notes that it stands in the 1363 passage rendered by the first English record, while the French verb is recorded only from 1580.^[2] The Latin verb is formed from Latin petra (“rock, stone”), from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétrā, “rock”),^[2][1][5] with -ficāre, from faciō (“to make, do”),^[7][9] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[9] The American Heritage Dictionary gives the Middle English form as petrifien (“to harden”).^[10] The OED compares Italian pietrificare.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To convert into stone or a stony substance: probably before 1425, in an English translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[2][5] where Barnhart reads the participle petrified as "hardened, solidified".^[5] Barnhart's first record of the plain verb is from 1594,^[5] and Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense led to two figurative lines, both built on the idea of being changed as if into stone.^[2] The first, to take away feeling and vitality or to harden and deaden, appears before 1631 in Donne's sermons.^[2] The second, to make someone motionless with astonishment or horror, is in the revised OED from 1667, in Denham's Directions to Painter,^[2] and Cresswell likewise dates it to the mid 17th century;^[11] Barnhart and Etymonline knew it only from 1771, in Goldsmith.^[5][9] French shows the same figurative senses from 1668 and 1706.^[2] Intransitive use began with the literal "to become stone" in 1646, in Sir T. Browne,^[2][9] and the OED now calls that rare; the figurative "to grow rigid" followed in 1685, in Dryden.^[2] Johnson (1755) defines the transitive verb as "to change to stone" and the intransitive as "to become stone", and quotes Dryden's "petrify with grief" and Pope's "petrify a genius to a dunce";^[12] his 1773 edition adds "to make callous".^[12]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – to convert into stone or a stony substance.^[2][5]
• before 1631 – to deprive of feeling or vitality; to harden, deaden.^[2]
• 1646 – intransitive, to become stone.^[2][9]
• 1667 – to make motionless with astonishment or fear.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline first find this sense in 1771.^[5][9]
• 1685 – intransitive, to become rigid as stone, figuratively.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To turn organic matter into stone or a stony substance, as when water carrying dissolved minerals replaces it: Silica-rich water petrified the buried logs.^[13][8][2]
2. To make someone unable to move or act through fear or shock; to terrify: The thunder petrified the foal.^[13][8][2]
3. To take away life, feeling or the capacity to change; to harden or deaden: Decades of routine had petrified the committee's thinking.^[13][8][2]
4. To become rigid, dull or unresponsive.^[13][2]
5. (rare) To turn into stone, without an object.^[2][12]

Word family

• petrifiable
• petrifier

Related words

• petrifaction
• petroleum
• petrol
• petrous
• Peter
• -fy

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins