proficiency

Etymology

The OED takes it as formed from English proficient + -ency, or else from its Latin source, the present participle Latin prōficiēns, with the same English suffix.^[2][3] Barnhart notes that the noun is recorded before the adjective proficient (about 1590), and so thinks it was probably formed from the Latin participle with -cy;^[4] Etymonline gives the same derivation.^[5] The Latin participle belongs to prōficiō (“to make progress, accomplish; to be useful, profit”),^[5][2][4] formed from prō- (“forward”) and faciō (“to make, do”),^[5][6][2] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[5] Johnson also derived it from the Latin verb.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Progress or advancement in skill or knowledge: 1544, in Coverdale's correspondence.^[4][6][8] The revised OED now dates this sense only from 1607,^[2] and Etymonline gives the 1540s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

At first the word meant the process of making progress, as the Latin verb did; the OED records this sense until 1873, and it is now obsolete.^[2][9][5] The state reached by that progress, skill or expertness in a field, appears in 1597 in Gabriel Harvey's Trimming of Thomas Nashe,^[2][9] though Barnhart dates it before 1639 and Etymonline to the 1630s.^[4][5] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "profit; advancement in any thing; improvement gained", applied to learning.^[7] From before 1662 a proficiency could also be a particular skill, and the OED notes that it now often means a set standard of skill reached after a course of training,^[2][9] as in the proficiency badge of Scouts and Guides.^[3] In New Zealand Proficiency was also the name of an examination, and of the certificate it gave, that admitted pupils to secondary education until it was abolished in 1935.^[10]

Timeline

• 1544 – progress, advancement in knowledge or skill, in Coverdale's correspondence.^[4][6][8]
• 1597 – skill, expertness in a field, in Gabriel Harvey.^[2][9]
• 1607 – progress, improvement (the revised OED's first record of this sense; last recorded 1873).^[2]
• before 1662 – a particular skill; later, a certain standard of skill.^[2][9]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as profit, advancement, improvement gained.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A high degree of skill or competence in a field; expertise: Her proficiency in Spanish won her the job.^[11][6][2]
2. A particular skill, or a set standard of skill reached after training.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, 1607–1873) Progress or improvement in knowledge or skill.^[2][3][6]

Word family

• nonproficiency

Related words

• proficient
• proficience
• profit
• efficient
• sufficient
• deficiency

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press