relation

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rɪˈleɪ.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English relacion, relacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman relacioun, borrowed from Old French relacion (“report, connection”), a learned borrowing, and directly borrowed from Latin relātiō (“a bringing back, restoring; report, reference”) (accusative relationem),^[2][3][4] from relātus, which serves as past participle of referre (“to carry back, refer, relate”) (see refer and relate).^[2][4][5] Hoad notes that relātus is formally from the base of tollere (“to raise”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Connection, association, correspondence: about 1378 in a version of Piers Plowman in Barnhart,^[2] about 1300 in Etymonline;^[3] the OED's earliest use, the action of relating in words, narration, is from 1390.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The feature of things considered together, how one stands to another, is from 1393 in the OED,^[7] and the phrase in relation to is from 1594.^[7] A narrative or account, as in early travel relations, is from the early 16th century.^[7] A person related by blood or marriage, a relative, is first in Henry VII's letters (1502),^[2] about 1500 in Etymonline.^[3] In logic a relation connects the terms of a proposition (1870).^[7] No relation, not in the same family, said of people with the same surname, is attested by 1930.^[3] The plural relations, dealings between people or countries, as in foreign relations, and euphemistically sexual intercourse, are recorded by the AHD and Collins.^[8][9] Relationship is from before 1744, in Pope's Dunciad.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1378 – connection, association.^[2]
• 1390 – narration.^[7]
• 1502 – a relative, in Henry VII's letters.^[2]
• 1594 – in relation to.^[7]
• 1744 – relationship, in Pope.^[2]
• 1930 – no relation.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A natural or logical connection between two or more things.
2. Connection by blood or marriage; kinship.
3. A person connected to another by blood or marriage; a relative.
4. (relations) Dealings between people, groups or countries.
5. The act of telling; a narrative or account.
6. (mathematics, logic) A property that holds between an ordered pair of objects.

Word family

• relationless
• corelation
• disrelation
• interrelation
• nonrelation
• relational
• relationship
• blood relation

Related words

• correlation
• relate
• relative
• relator
• refer

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins