piece

Pronunciation

• IPA: /piːs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pece, borrowed from Old French piece (“piece, bit; item; coin”), also pece,^[2][3][4][5] from Vulgar Latin *pettia,^[2][4][6] probably from Gaulish *pettsi:^[2][7][5] compare Welsh peth (“thing”) and Breton pez “piece, a little”.^[2][6][7] Etymonline traces this to Old Celtic *kʷezd-i-, from Proto-Indo-European *kwezd- (“a part, piece”).^[2] The Concise Oxford calls the ultimate origin obscure.^[8] The verb is from the noun.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

“A part, portion, section”: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[3][9] or about 1200, “a fixed amount, measure”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A fragment of an object, a slice of meat, is from about 1300.^[2] The noun was also used of a person from about 1300, in modern use contemptuously, especially of a woman; the sense “a person regarded as a sex object” is by 1785.^[2] A coin is a piece from about 1400, hence piece of eight, the Spanish dollar worth eight reals, from about 1600.^[2] A separate article forming part of a set is from about 1400, and a specimen or example from the 1560s.^[2] An artillery weapon is a piece from the 1540s, and a portable firearm from the 1580s.^[2] A man in a board game is from the 16th century.^[10] In one piece is by the 1580s and of a piece from the 1610s.^[2] The verb, “to mend by adding pieces”, is from about 1400, and “to put together” from the late 15th century.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1200 – a part, portion.^[3]
• c. 1300 – a fragment; a person.^[2]
• c. 1400 – a coin; an item of a set; verb, to mend.^[2]
• 1540s – an artillery piece.^[2]
• 1580s – a firearm, and in one piece.^[2]
• c. 1600 – piece of eight.^[2]
• 1785 – a woman as a sex object.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A part separated from a whole; a fragment.
2. One of a set or a class of things: a piece of furniture.
3. A work of art, music or writing.
4. A coin.
5. A figure used in a board game.
6. (informal) A gun.
7. An instance or example: a piece of luck.

Verb

1. To join or put together: piece together.
2. To mend by adding pieces; to patch.

Word family

• piecer

Related words

• patch
• peat
• piecemeal
• masterpiece
• centrepiece

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 p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press