progressive

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /prəˈɡres.ɪv/, /prəʊˈɡres.ɪv/, US /prəˈɡres.ɪv/, /proʊˈɡres.ɪv/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French progressif (feminine progressive) or Medieval Latin progressivus,^[2][3][4] from progress-, the past participle stem of prōgredī (“to go forward”) (see progress);^[5][3][4] Etymonline and MWU also allow a formation in English from progress and -ive.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Going forward, characterized by advancement: about 1600 in Etymonline;^[5] proceeding by stages in a series in the early 17th century, 1620 in the OED.^[2][7] Of persons or communities making progress, 1607–12.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Moving forward in space is from 1644 in the OED.^[7] Of a disease growing steadily worse, it is from the mid-18th century,^[2] and of a tax whose rate rises with the sum taxed from the late 18th century in the SOED and 1889 in Etymonline.^[2][5] Card games and dances with successive changes of partners were progressive from the late 19th century, 1875 for euchre and whist.^[2][7] In politics, favouring reform, it emerged in Britain from the 1880s,^[5] and in the United States it named a reform movement active from the 1890s for a generation; the name has been taken up again from time to time, most recently by more liberal Democrats about 2000.^[5] The noun for a person who favours change in the name of progress is by 1865, first in Christianity.^[5] In the arts, avant-garde or innovative is from 1908, and of jazz from 1947.^[5] In grammar it became another name for the continuous tense in the early 20th century.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1600 – going forward.^[5]
• 1620 – proceeding in a series.^[7]
• 1644 – moving onward.^[7]
• mid-18th century – of a disease.^[2]
• 1865 – the noun, an advocate of progress.^[5]
• 1880s – favouring political reform.^[5]
• 1889 – of taxation.^[5]
• 1908 – avant-garde.^[5]
• 1947 – progressive jazz.^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Favouring political or social reform and new ideas.
2. Proceeding by steps; increasing gradually: a progressive disease.
3. Of a tax, rising in rate as the amount taxed rises.
4. Moving forward or onward.
5. (grammar) Expressing an action in progress, as in is walking; continuous.
6. Of education, stressing individual needs and informal methods.

Noun

1. A person who favours progress or reform.
2. (Progressive) A member of a Progressive Party, as in American history.

Word family

• progressively
• progressiveness
• antiprogressive
• nonprogressive
• progressivism
• progressivity
• ultraprogressive
• unprogressive

Related words

• progress
• progression
• regressive
• aggressive
• grade
• digress

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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press