predicament

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English predicament,^[2] borrowed from Middle French predicament, recorded in Old French from about 1245 as a term of philosophy,^[3][4][2] and directly borrowed from Late Latin praedicāmentum (“something predicated; quality, category”).^[3][4][5][6] The Latin word was used from the 4th century for each of Aristotle's ten categories, as a loan translation of Ancient Greek κατηγορία (katēgoría, “category”),^[3][4][7][8] and is formed from praedicō (“to proclaim, declare publicly; to predicate”) and -mentum.^[3][4][7] The verb is formed from prae- (“before, forth”) and dicō (“to proclaim, make known”),^[5][9] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *deik- (“to show”).^[5] The same Latin verb gave preach and predicate.^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In logic, a category, especially one of Aristotle's ten categories: before 1425, in Wyclif's English works, where fools must learn predicamentis and the ten kinds of things.^[3][2][4] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the logician's "category" the word moved to a class or kind of things (1548–1874, now obsolete),^[3] and then to a state or condition in general, recorded from 1586.^[3][4][10] Johnson (1755) still defined it as a class or category, quoting Shakespeare's "In which predicament I say thou stand'st".^[11] Weekley quotes Fielding's Tom Jones, "many northern lasses of the same predicament", for the old sense of class or condition.^[12] The modern sense, an awkward or unpleasant situation, is a narrowing of the general sense "condition";^[12][5] Ayto finds it established only in the 18th century.^[9] In the 18th century the word was also used, rarely, for predication.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1425 – a category of logic, one of Aristotle's ten categories.^[3][2][4]
• 1548 – a class of things about which something is stated (obsolete by 1874).^[3]
• 1586 – a circumstance, condition or state; later chiefly a difficult or awkward one.^[3][4]
• 1765 – predication (rare, obsolete).^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A difficult, awkward or unpleasant situation, especially one that is hard to get out of: Locked out without her phone, she was in a real predicament.^[13][14][3]
2. (logic) A category, especially one of the ten categories of Aristotle.^[13][14][3]
3. (wrestling) A near fall that scores a point for the attacking wrestler.^[14]
4. (archaic) A condition or state.^[14][13]

Word family

• predicamental
• predicamentally

Related words

• preach
• predicate
• category
• diction

Usage notes

Dictionary.com compares predicament with plight, quandary and dilemma: predicament and plight stress how unpleasant a situation is, quandary and dilemma how puzzling.^[15] Plight is now mostly jocular, while predicament can be used lightly or of a serious situation.^[15] In the logical sense the word is often stressed on the first syllable.^[14][13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House