record

Pronunciation

• IPA: noun UK /ˈrek.ɔːd/, US /ˈrek.ɚd/; verb UK /rɪˈkɔːd/, US /rɪˈkɔːrd/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English recorden (“to repeat, recite”), borrowed from Old French recorder (“to tell, repeat, recite, report”),^[2][3][4] and directly from Latin recordārī (“to remember, call to mind”),^[2][3][5] formed from re- and cor (“heart”) (genitive cordis),^[3][2] the heart being the seat of memory, as in the phrase “learn by heart”.^[3][2] Etymonline traces cor to Proto-Indo-European *kerd- (“heart”).^[3][5] The noun is from Old French record (“memory; statement, report”),^[3][2][6] and in part from Medieval Latin recordum.^[3] It is related to heart, cordial and accord.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To repeat, recite, get by heart: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[2] or about 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant “to set down in writing” from 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt,^[2] or the mid-14th century.^[3] From the 15th century it also meant “to practise a song”, later only of birds.^[9][10] The noun meant “testimony” probably before 1300,^[2] and in law the fact of being written down as evidence from before 1300.^[9] An official written account is from 1399,^[2] and the preservation of something as knowledge, especially in writing, from the late 14th century.^[3] A known record of performance, a person's past, is from 1856 in American English.^[3] A disc or cylinder holding recorded sound is from 1878,^[2][3] and the verb “to put sound on a disc or tape” from 1892.^[2][3] The best official achievement in a sport is a record from 1883.^[2][3] Record player is from 1919^[3] or 1934.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1200 – verb, to recite (Ancrene Riwle).^[2]
• before 1300 – testimony; legal record.^[2][9]
• 1340 – verb, to set down in writing.^[2]
• 1399 – an official written account.^[2]
• 15th century – verb, of birds, to practise a song.^[10]
• 1856 – a person's history.^[3]
• 1878 – a sound recording disc.^[2]
• 1883 – a sporting record.^[2]
• 1892 – verb, to record sound.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An account of facts set down in writing to preserve them.
2. Information collected and kept on a subject; an official document.
3. The known history of someone's performance or conduct: a criminal record.
4. The best performance known, as in a sport.
5. A disc on which sound is recorded.

Verb

1. To set down in writing or another lasting form.
2. To register or indicate, as an instrument does.
3. To store sound or images by mechanical or electronic means.

Adjective

1. Best or highest so far: a record crop.

Word family

• recordable
• recordless
• off-the-record
• recordholder
• recordist
• recordkeeping
• self-recording
• prerecord

Related words

• recorder
• recording
• heart
• cordial
• accord
• concord
• courage

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press