Etymologically
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practice

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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
  • 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