produce

Pronunciation

• IPA: verb UK /prəˈdʒuːs/, US /prəˈduːs/; noun UK /ˈprɒdʒ.uːs/, US /ˈprɑː.duːs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English producen,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin prōdūcere (“to lead forth, bring forth, draw out”),^[4][2][5] from prō- (“forth”) and dūcere (“to lead, bring”),^[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *deuk- (“to lead”).^[4] The noun is from the verb.^[2][4] It is related to duct, product and tow.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To extend, proceed: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[2] the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[4] The OED's first example, “to bring forward”, is from 1499.^[7]

Semantic evolution

“To bring into existence” is from the late 15th century,^[4] or 1513 in Barnhart.^[2] Of animals or plants, “to bear, generate”, is from the 1520s.^[4][2] “To yield, supply” is from 1585,^[2] and to put a play on the stage from the 1580s.^[4][7] “To make by mental or physical work” is from the 1630s,^[4] and the economic sense, to create goods that will fetch a price, by 1827.^[4] The noun, “that which is produced”, is from the 1690s, at first stressed like the verb,^[4][2] and agricultural produce, as distinguished from manufactured goods, from 1745.^[4][7] Producer is from 1513, and of plays and films from 1891.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – to extend, proceed.^[2]
• 1499 – to bring forward.^[7]
• 1513 – to bring into existence.^[2]
• 1520s – to bear offspring or fruit.^[4]
• 1580s – to put a play on stage.^[4]
• 1690s – noun, the thing produced.^[4]
• 1745 – agricultural produce.^[4][7]
• 1827 – in political economy.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make or manufacture.
2. To bring forth; to yield or bear.
3. To cause or give rise to.
4. To bring forward for inspection: to produce a passport.
5. To oversee and finance a play, film or recording.
6. (geometry) To extend a line.

Noun

1. Farm products, especially fresh fruit and vegetables.
2. Something produced; a product.

Word family

• producible
• producibility
• coproduce
• mass-produce
• reproduce
• interproduce
• misproduce
• outproduce

Related words

• producer
• product
• production
• productive
• duct
• conduct
• induce
• duke
• tow

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press