Etymologically
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produce

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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

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