Etymologically
Log in

piece

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 15:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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