ripen

Etymology

It is formed from English ripe + -en.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The language already had a verb Middle English rīpen (“to grow ripe”), also written ripe, from Old English rīpian.^[7][3][8] The adjective is from Old English rīpe (“ready for reaping, mature”),^[3][1] from Proto-West Germanic *rīpī,^[1] and has cognates in Dutch rijp and German reif.^[3][9][1] Its further origin is uncertain, though some link it with reap.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make fruit or seed ripe: about 1450, in Capgrave's Life of Saint Augustine.^[2] The Shorter Oxford notes that the verb appears first in the participial adjective ripening,^[5] and Merriam-Webster also dates it to the 15th century,^[4] while Etymonline and Dictionary.com put it about a century later, in the 1560s and 1555–65.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The figurative use came early: from 1549 people and things could ripen, reaching their full growth,^[2] before the first record of fruit itself growing ripe in 1573.^[2] Etymonline, which dates the fruit sense to the 1560s, puts the figurative use only about 1600.^[3] From about 1560 the verb also meant to bring a thing to maturity or perfection,^[2] and Johnson (1755) gives "to mature; to make ripe".^[10] In medicine it was used from 1590 of an abscess brought to the point of discharge.^[2][4] From 1658 it was applied to natural and manufactured products reaching the state fit for use,^[2] which became the technical language of cheese and cream.^[4] In 1892 land was said to ripen when it became valuable enough to develop.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – to make fruit or seed ripe.^[2]
• 1549 – to grow to maturity, figuratively.^[2]
• c. 1560 – to bring to maturity or perfection.^[2]
• 1573 – of fruit or seed, to grow ripe.^[2] Etymonline dates this to the 1560s.^[3]
• 1590 – to bring an abscess to a head.^[2]
• 1611 – to develop into something.^[2]
• 1658 – of a product, to reach the state fit for use.^[2]
• 1892 – of land, to become valuable enough for development.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become ripe: The pears ripen slowly on the sill.^[11][4][2]
2. To make ripe: Long sunny days ripened the grapes.^[11][4][2]
3. To come to full development or readiness: Their acquaintance ripened into friendship.^[4][2]
4. To bring to maturity or perfection.^[4][2]
5. To age or cure a product so as to develop its flavour and texture, as cheese; to sour cream before churning.^[4][2]
6. Of an abscess or boil, to become ready to discharge.^[4][2]
7. Of a photographic emulsion, to change in grain size or sensitivity under treatment.^[4]
8. Of land, to become valuable enough to let or sell for development.^[2]

Word family

• ripener
• underripened
• unripened
• unripening
• overripen

Related words

• ripe
• reap

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins