practice

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpræk.tɪs/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English practisen, borrowed from Middle French practiser, also pratiser,^[2][3][4][5] an alteration, with the common suffix -iser, of practiquer,^[3][4] from Medieval Latin prācticāre (“to do, perform”),^[2][3][6] from Late Latin prācticus (“practical”),^[2][6] from Ancient Greek πρακτικός (praktikós, “practical”), the source of practical.^[2][7] The noun is from the verb, its spelling practice following pairs such as advice and advise, device and devise.^{[8][9][10][6]} It largely replaced an older noun, practic, which survived alongside it into the 19th century.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, “to do, act, perform, especially habitually”: 1392,^[3] or the late 14th century, “to follow a course of action”.^[2] The noun, “the practical side or application”, especially of medicine, is from the early 15th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the early 15th century the verb meant “to carry on a profession”, especially medicine, and “to do repeatedly so as to acquire skill”.^[2] The intransitive “to train oneself” and the causative “to drill, train someone” are from the 1590s.^[2] The noun meant a habit or customary performance from about 1500,^[2] 1509 in the OED,^[11] exercise for instruction from the 1520s,^[2] 1525 in the OED,^[11] and action as opposed to theory from the 1530s.^[2] The regular pursuit of a profession is from the 1570s.^[2] In the 16th and 17th centuries practice was also used in an evil sense, “a plot, scheme”,^[2][9] and a verb sense “to intrigue, plot” is still recorded.^[12] The method of procedure in the law courts is practice from 1623.^[11] In British spelling the verb is practise and the noun practice.^[8][10]

Timeline

• 1392 – verb, to do habitually.^[3]
• early 15th century – noun, practical application; to practise a profession.^[2]
• c. 1500 – a habit.^[2]
• 1525 – exercise for instruction.^[11]
• 1530s – practice as opposed to theory.^[2]
• 1570s – the pursuit of a profession.^[2]
• 1590s – to drill someone.^[2]
• 1623 – legal procedure.^[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Repeated exercise in an activity to learn or improve a skill.
2. A habitual or customary way of doing something.
3. Actual performance, as opposed to theory: in practice.
4. The work of a profession, as of a doctor or lawyer, or the business itself.
5. (law) The procedure of the courts.

Verb

1. To do repeatedly in order to gain or improve a skill.
2. To do habitually; to make a habit of.
3. To work at a profession: to practise medicine.
4. To observe the teachings of a religion.

Word family

• practicer
• malpractice
• mispractice
• nonpractice
• overpractice
• prepractice
• outpractice
• unpracticed

Related words

• practic
• practicable
• practical
• practitioner
• practise
• pragmatic
• praxis

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes a 19th-century warning that practice is sometimes wrongly used for experience, a much broader word: practice is the repetition of an act.^[2]

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 e 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. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin