Etymologically
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relax

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /rɪˈlæks/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English relaxen, borrowed from Old French relaxer and directly borrowed from Latin relaxāre (“to loosen, open, stretch out”),[2][3][4][5] from re- (“back”) and laxāre (“to loosen”), from laxus (“loose”) (see lax),[2][3][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *sleg- (“to be slack, languid”).[3] It is a doublet of release.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To loosen or ease: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum;[2] Etymonline has the late 14th century, to make something less compact or dense, originally especially in medicine of muscles.[3]

Semantic evolution

To decrease tension is from the early 15th century,[3] probably before 1425 in Barnhart.[2] In Scots law to relax was to free from legal restraint (16th century).[4] To make less strict or severe is from 1662,[2][7] the 1660s in Etymonline,[3] and to diminish the force of something, such as one's grip, from 1781.[7] The intransitive sense, to become loose or languid, is by 1762;[3] of persons, to become less formal, by 1837,[3] and to become less tense, to take one's ease, is recorded from 1935.[3] The noun, an act of relaxing, is from the 17th century.[3][7] Relaxation meant a rupture of a bodily part in 1392 and later a reduction of a penalty.[2][4]

Timeline

  • 1392 – relaxation, a rupture.[2]
  • before 1398 – to loosen.[2]
  • before 1425 – to decrease tension.[2][3]
  • 1662 – to make less strict.[2][7]
  • 1762 – to become languid.[3]
  • 1837 – to become less formal.[3]
  • 1935 – to become less tense, to unwind.[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To make or become less tense, tight or rigid: relax your muscles.
  2. To rest or take one's ease, especially after work or strain.
  3. To make or become less strict or severe: to relax the rules.
  4. To make or become less formal or restrained.

Word family

  • relaxable
  • relaxer
  • relaxative
  • relaxin
  • overrelax
  • relaxation
  • lax
  • release
  • relaxant
  • laxative
  • slack

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 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press