Etymologically
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regime

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /reɪˈʒiːm/, US /rəˈʒiːm/, /reɪˈʒiːm/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French régime,[2][3][4] from Latin regimen (“rule, guidance, government; rudder”) (see regimen),[2][3][5] from regere (“to direct, guide, rule”),[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to move in a straight line, direct”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A course of diet or exercise for health, a regimen: the late 15th century in Etymonline, NODE and the SOED;[3][5][6] the OED's first example is from 1776.[7] That sense now belongs mostly to regimen.[3]

Semantic evolution

A system of rule or government, a mode of management, is from 1792,[3][7] NODE notes with reference first to the ancien régime, the French system of government before the revolution of 1789.[5][3][7] The condition of a watercourse with regard to changes in its bed is from 1779, and the balance of water entering and leaving a body of water from 1874.[7] The set of conditions under which a system occurs, as in physics and engineering, is from 1890.[7] The sense of a government regarded as oppressive or illegitimate is now frequent.[8][9]

Timeline

  • late 15th century – a regimen of health.[3][6]
  • 1779 – the regime of a river.[7]
  • 1792 – a system of government; the old regime.[3][7]
  • 1890 – a set of conditions.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A form or system of government, or a government in power, especially an authoritarian one.
  2. A prevailing social system or order.
  3. The period during which a particular government or system is in power.
  4. A regulated system of diet and exercise; a regimen.
  5. The characteristic behaviour or conditions of a natural system, such as a river.

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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins