proprietary

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English proprietarie,^[2][3][4] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman proprietarie (“owner”) and Middle French proprietaire (now French propriétaire), and partly borrowed from Latin proprietārius (“owner; of an owner”).^{[5][4][3][6][7]} The Latin noun is recorded from the 2nd century AD; in post-classical Latin it was also an adjective, and it was used of a monk who held private property from the 9th century and of the holder of an appropriated benefice from 1439.^[5] It is formed from proprietās (“ownership; property”) and the suffix -ārius,^[5][2][6] and the noun in turn from proprius (“one's own”), the source of proper.^[3][8][9] Hoad notes that proprietor (17th century) is an alteration of proprietary with a different suffix.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, in church history, the holder of an appropriated benefice: 1446.^[5] Barnhart dates the noun to 1401, for a person caught up in worldly goods to the neglect of devotion,^[4] and Etymonline to about 1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of the church: a member of a religious order who broke the vow of poverty by holding property, or more widely a selfish, worldly person (about 1450 to 1632).^[5][7][4] The adjective likewise first meant property-owning, used of clerics who had more worldly goods than they needed (about 1450).^[5][6][4] The general sense "an owner" is recorded from 1473 to 1852,^[5][4] and the adjective "held in private ownership" from 1589, in Puttenham.^[5][4][2] From 1637 in the American colonies a proprietary was a person granted rights of government over a colony;^[5][6] such proprietary colonies (from 1704) were distinguished from charter and royal colonies.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as belonging to a certain owner, and the noun as a possessor in his own right.^[11] From 1785 a proprietary drug or medicine was one whose making or sale was restricted to particular people, later one sold under a trade name.^[5][9] In American use the noun meant such a drug from 1901.^[5]

Timeline

• 1401 – noun, a person attached to worldly goods (Barnhart).^[4]
• 1446 – noun, the holder of an appropriated benefice (obsolete by 1708).^[5]
• c. 1450 – adjective, property-owning.^[5][4]
• 1473 – noun, an owner.^[5][4]
• 1589 – adjective, held in private ownership.^[5][4][2]
• 1624 – noun, ownership.^[5]
• 1637 – noun, the grantee of an American colony.^[5]
• 1704 – adjective, of a proprietary colony.^[5]
• 1785 – adjective, of a drug restricted to a particular maker.^[5]
• 1901 – noun, a proprietary drug.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Owned and controlled privately, especially by one company, and made or sold under a trademark or patent: proprietary software.^[2][9][5]
2. Of or relating to an owner or to property; typical of an owner: He gave the garden a proprietary glance.^[2][9][5]
3. In medicine, of a drug made and sold under a trade name.^[9][5]
4. In colonial America, of a colony whose government was granted to a person or group.^[5][9]

Noun

1. A proprietary drug.^[9][5]
2. An owner or proprietor, or owners as a body.^[9][2][5]
3. In colonial America, an owner or grantee of a proprietary colony.^[2][9][5]
4. (historical) Ownership.^[5][9]
5. (obsolete, 1450–1632) A member of a religious order who held property against a vow of poverty.^[5][7]

Word family

• proprietarily
• nonproprietary

Related words

• proper
• proprietor
• property
• propriety
• appropriate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon 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.