Etymologically
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range

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:45. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /reɪndʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English renge, borrowed from Old French renge, range (“row, rank”),[2][3][4] from rengier, rangier (“to put in a row, arrange”),[3][4] from reng, rang (“line, row”),[3][5] from Frankish *hring (“circle, ring”) or another Germanic source,[2][5] from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“circle, ring”),[2] the source of ring.[2][5] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to turn, bend”).[2][6] It is related to rank and arrange.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A row or line of persons, especially hunters or soldiers: about 1200,[2] before 1300 in the OED,[7] or before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi.[3] The verb “to roam, search over an area” is also from about 1200.[2]

Semantic evolution

A row of things is from the early 14th century,[2] or 1511,[7] and a row of buildings from 1600.[7] The cooking stove is a range from the mid-15th century, for unknown reasons;[2] it was originally built into a fireplace.[2] “Scope, extent” is by the late 15th century.[2][8] The distance a gun can send a shot is from the 1590s, and a place for shooting practice from 1862.[2] The area where animals seek food is from the 1620s.[2] A row of mountains is a range by 1705.[2][7] In the United States a series of townships six miles wide is from 1785.[2][7] The verb “to arrange in rows” is from about 1300, and “to vary within limits” developed later.[2][9]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – a row of people; verb, to roam.[2]
  • early 14th century – a line, row.[2]
  • mid-15th century – a cooking stove.[2]
  • late 15th century – scope.[2]
  • 1590s – the range of a gun.[2]
  • 1620s – grazing land.[2]
  • 1705 – a mountain range.[2][7]
  • 1862 – a shooting range.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The extent of perception, knowledge or ability; the area or sphere of an activity; scope.
  2. The amount of variation between limits: a price range.
  3. The maximum distance a weapon or vehicle can reach.
  4. A place for shooting practice.
  5. A line or chain of mountains.
  6. An extensive area of open land for grazing.
  7. A cooking stove.

Verb

  1. To vary within limits.
  2. To arrange in rows; to classify.
  3. To roam over an area; to extend in a direction.

Word family

  • wide-ranging

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares range with scope, reach, compass, orbit and purview.[9] A separate dialect range, “a sieve; to sift meal”, is of unknown origin.[4][7]

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 n o p q r s t u v w x y Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin