quotation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin quotātiō (“numbering, reckoning”),^[2][3][4][5] from the stem of quotātus, the past participle of quotō (“to number, mark with numbers”),^[2][6][5] which was formed from Latin quotus (“of what number”),^[7][6] from quot (“how many”).^[7][6] The medieval verb was used for marking the sections of a manuscript with numbers as reference points.^[7] Barnhart and Etymonline allow that it was also formed in English from the verb quote with -ation.^[8][6] The OED compares Middle French quottation (“annotation, remark”), recorded in 1527.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A numbering, a number: about 1485, in Gilbert Hay's Buke of the Law of Armys (written 1456),^[2] the date Barnhart and Etymonline give.^[8][6] This sense is rare and obsolete.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Like the verb quote, the noun moved from numbering the parts of a text to referring to them.^[7][6] From 1532 a quotation was a reference, usually in the margin, to a passage by page or chapter,^[2][8][4] a sense dead by 1683,^[2] when the word was taken up by printers for a large blank quadrat.^[2] The act of quoting is recorded from 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne,^[2][8] and a passage quoted from a book or speaker from 1618 in the OED,^[2] from the 1680s in Etymonline.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave these two senses, "the act of quoting" and a "passage adduced out of an author as evidence or illustration".^[9] The commercial sense, a stated price of stock or goods, appears in 1812,^[2][6][10] and later also covers a contractor's estimate for a job.^[2][11] The quotation mark is attested by 1777,^[6] and a borrowed musical passage is called a quotation from 1890.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1485 – a numbering, a number (obsolete).^[2]
• 1532 – a marginal reference to a passage (obsolete by 1683).^[2][8]
• 1618 – a passage quoted from a book or speech.^[2]
• 1646 – the act of quoting.^[2]
• 1777 – quotation mark.^[6]
• 1812 – a stated price of stock or a commodity.^[2][6]
• 1890 – a passage of music borrowed in another work.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A passage or phrase repeated from a book, speech or other source, often to illustrate or support a point: a quotation from Dickens.^[11][4][2]
2. The act or habit of quoting.^[11][4][2]
3. A short passage of music, or an image, taken from one work and used in another.^[2]
4. In commerce, a statement of the current price of a security or commodity.^[11][4][2]
5. An estimate of costs given by a contractor to a possible customer: We asked three builders for a quotation.^[11][2]
6. (obsolete, 1532–1683) A reference, usually in a margin, to a passage of text.^[2][4][3]

Word family

• quotational
• quotationally
• misquotation
• quotation mark

Related words

• quote
• quota
• quotient

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins