Etymologically
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population

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˌpɒp.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/, US /ˌpɑː.pjəˈleɪ.ʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin populātiō (“a people, a multitude”) (accusative populātiōnem),[2][3][4] as if from Latin populus (“a people”),[2][3] the source of people.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A peopled or inhabited place: 1578, now obsolete.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The whole number of the inhabitants of a country or town, or the degree to which it is peopled, is from 1612[5][3] or the 1610s.[2] The act or process of peopling a country is from 1776.[2][5] The word was extended to animals and plants from 1803,[5] to the whole set of items studied in statistics from 1877,[5] and to a breeding group in genetics from 1889.[5] The inmates of a prison are its population from 1950.[5] Population explosion is attested by 1953.[2] In Wiltshire and Devon population was a dialect form of “palpitation”, as in population of the heart.[6]

Timeline

  • 1578 – an inhabited place.[5]
  • 1612 – the number of inhabitants.[5][3]
  • 1776 – the peopling of a place.[2][5]
  • 1803 – of animals and plants.[5]
  • 1877 – in statistics.[5]
  • 1953 – population explosion.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. All the people living in a particular place.
  2. The total number of such people.
  3. A particular group of people or animals in an area: the elderly population.
  4. (biology) All the organisms of one species living in an area.
  5. (statistics) The whole group of items from which a sample is taken.

Word family

  • populational
  • populationless
  • intrapopulation
  • overpopulation
  • repopulation
  • subpopulation
  • superpopulation
  • population genetics

Usage notes

An obsolete population, “devastation, laying waste”, from 1552, is a different word.[5]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ 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)