registry

Etymology

It was formed from English register + -ry.^[2][3][4] Etymonline takes it from the noun register with the suffix -y,^[5] the Shorter Oxford from the verb,^[2] and the OED explains it as a variant of the earlier registery with the third syllable dropped.^[6] The Shorter Oxford compares Medieval Latin registerium.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A register or book of record, or an entry in one: a1529, in John Skelton's Why Come Ye Not to Court,^[6][7] the date Merriam-Webster gives as about 1529.^[3] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century in the sense "the act of registering",^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1475–85.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the book itself the word passed in 1531 to the office where registers are kept,^[6][7] Etymonline dates that sense to about 1600.^[5] The OED's first quotation for the act of registering, registration, is from Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie (1589),^[6] and Johnson (1755) gave both "the act of inserting in the register" and "the place where the register is kept".^[8] The office of registrar was also called a registry from 1648 to 1740.^[6][7] Later senses include the nationality of a ship as shown by its entry in a register,^[3][9] the North American gift list kept by a shop for a wedding (1933),^[6] and in computing the Windows database of configuration settings (1992).^[6]

Timeline

• a1529 – a register, a book of record.^[6][3]
• 1531 – an office where registers are kept.^[6]
• 1589 – the act of registering.^[6]
• 1648–1740 – the office of registrar.^[6]
• 1933 – (North America) a gift list kept by a shop.^[6]
• 1992 – (computing) the Windows registry.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A place or office where registers or records are kept: They married at the local registry.
2. An official list or record; a register: a national registry of organ donors.
3. The act of registering; registration.
4. The country in which a ship is registered, and whose flag it flies: a tanker of Panamanian registry.
5. (chiefly North America) A list of gifts chosen by a couple before a wedding or by parents before a birth, kept by a shop for guests to buy from.
6. (computing) A database in Windows systems that stores settings for the operating system, programs and hardware.

Word family

• registry office

Related words

• register
• registrar
• registration

Usage notes

A registry office (also register office) is a British local office where births, marriages and deaths are recorded and civil marriages take place.^[2][9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins