reason

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈriː.zᵊn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reisun (later resoun), borrowed from Anglo-Norman resoun, Old French reson or raison,^[2][3][4] from a Romance form of Latin ratiō (“reckoning, account; understanding, motive, cause”),^[2][3][5] from ratus, the past participle of rērī (“to reckon, think”),^[2][6][4] which Etymonline derives from Proto-Indo-European *re- (“to reason, count”).^[2] It is a doublet of ratio and ration.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cause or motive for an action, an explanation, the ability to think: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

“Sanity” is from the late 13th century, and “a reasonable view” and “grounds for action” from about 1300.^[2] The Middle English sense “meaning, sense” survives in rhyme or reason.^[2] The verb first meant “to question, argue with” before 1325,^[3][2] and “to think logically” from the 1590s.^[2][4] Reasonable is found in 1303 in Mannyng, and reasoning about 1380, in Chaucer.^[3] A reason of state is from the 1610s.^[2] The Enlightenment gave reason the sense of a universal intelligence shared by all minds, and Tom Paine's The Age of Reason appeared in 1794.^[2] Theirs not to reason why comes from Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1200 – a cause; the power to think (Ancrene Riwle).^[3]
• late 13th century – sanity.^[2]
• c. 1300 – grounds for action.^[2]
• 1303 – reasonable (Mannyng).^[3]
• before 1325 – verb, to argue (Cursor Mundi).^[3]
• c. 1380 – reasoning (Chaucer).^[3]
• 1590s – to think logically.^[2]
• 1794 – The Age of Reason.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The basis or motive for an action, decision or belief.
2. A statement explaining or justifying something.
3. An underlying fact or cause.
4. The capacity for logical thought; intelligence.
5. Good judgement; sanity.

Verb

1. To think logically; to draw conclusions.
2. To talk or argue logically and persuasively; to persuade by reasons.

Word family

• reasoner
• nonreason
• subreason
• reasonless
• unreason
• outreason
• nonreasoning
• unreasoning

Related words

• reasonable
• unreasonable
• ratio
• ration
• rate
• ratify

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary contrasts reason, the power of logical thought, with intuition, understanding and judgment.^[8] A separate word reason, “a wall plate”, is an altered form of rasen, from the mid-16th century.^[5][9]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster