Etymologically
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remote

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /rɪˈməʊt/, /rəˈməʊt/, US /rɪˈmoʊt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French remot, feminine remote, or directly from Latin remōtus (“far off, distant”),[2][3] the past participle of removēre (“to move back or away”), from re- (“back, away”) and movēre (“to move”).[3][2][4] It is related to remove.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Far apart, at a distance from each other: about 1420 in the OED, about 1440 in Barnhart, the mid-15th century in Etymonline.[5][2][3] Hoad notes it was rare before the late 16th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

“Distant” in any sense is from the 1590s:[3] far off in place from 1590, out of the way or secluded from 1611, and distant in time from 1712.[5] Slight or faint, of resemblances or chances, is by 1711.[3] Remote control, controlling from a distance, is recorded from 1904, and as a device for this from 1920.[3][2] The noun, a broadcast from outside a studio and a remote control, is in the American Heritage Dictionary.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1420 – far apart.[5]
  • 1590 – far off.[5]
  • 1611 – secluded.[5]
  • 1711 – slight.[3]
  • 1904 – remote control.[3][2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Far away in distance; far from towns or people: a remote village.
  2. Distant in time.
  3. Slight: a remote chance.
  4. Distantly related or connected.
  5. Unfriendly or aloof in manner.
  6. Operating or controlled from a distance, as by a computer network.

Noun

  1. A remote control.

Word family

  • remotely
  • remoteness
  • unremote
  • remote control
  • remote sensing

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin