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sampler

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Etymology and origin of the English word sampler

Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈsæmplɚ/[1]

sampler1 needlework; model

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1300 before 1300, Cursor Mundi
Borrowed from
Old French essamplaire via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin exemplum

Etymology

The needlework sampler is inherited from Middle English saumpler, also samplere,[2][3] an aphetic form borrowed from Old French essamplaire,[4][5][6] a variant of essemplaire, now exemplaire;[5][6][7] the Old French word is from Late Latin exemplārium (“model, copy”),[8][9][10] a late form of Latin exemplar (“a copy”),[11] from exemplum.[11] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from 1113–19, meant a model or pattern, an ideal example, a source or a copy of a book.[12] The American Heritage Dictionary derives it partly from a Middle English word for a model, from a reconstructed Anglo-Norman *essamplur, and partly as a shortening of ensampler, from ensamplour.[9] Etymonline instead derives it from sample in its older sense "example".[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

An example to be imitated, a model or pattern; an original from which a copy is made: before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi.[4][6][14] Etymonline dates it to the early 14th century,[13] and Merriam-Webster to the 13th century.[8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant a typical instance or specimen, and a symbol or type (from before 1400);[4] Trench quotes the Wycliffite Bible's prefatory epistles, where Job is "the sawmpler of pacience".[15] Both senses died out by the end of the 17th century.[4][5] From the 16th century it was used of a piece of embroidery: first as a pattern to be copied (1574–1675); from 1523, in Skelton, it was a beginner's exercise, a piece of canvas worked by a girl as a specimen of skill, often with the alphabet and mottoes.[4][6][13] Etymonline suggests that the embroidery was first thought of as an illustrative specimen, or a pattern to be kept and copied.[13] Johnson (1755) defined it as a pattern of work, a piece worked by young girls for improvement, and noted the spelling samplar.[16] In forestry a sampler was a young tree left standing when the rest were felled (1652).[4] From the 19th century the word was also used for a sample (1823), and then for a collection of samples or a representative selection, recorded by Etymonline from 1912, by the OED from 1969, which mentions especially a record with examples of a performer or a kind of music.[4][13]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – an example to be imitated, a model.[4]
  • before 1400 – a typical instance, a specimen.[4]
  • 1523 – a beginner's piece of embroidery worked as a specimen of skill.[4][17]
  • 1574 – a piece of embroidery serving as a pattern (obsolete by 1675).[4]
  • 1628 – verb sampler, to sample (obsolete).[4]
  • 1652 – in forestry, a young tree left standing.[4]
  • 1912 – a collection of samples, a representative selection.[13] The OED's first record of this sense is from 1969.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A decorative piece of cloth embroidered with letters, mottoes and designs in different stitches, made to show skill at needlework: Her grandmother's sampler hangs in the hall.[9][18][8][4]
  2. A representative collection or selection, as of music on a record or of foods in a box: a sampler of Irish poets.[9][4]
  3. (forestry) A young tree left standing when the others are cut down.[4][5]
  4. (obsolete, 1300–1680) An example or model to be imitated; an archetype.[4][8]

sampler2 one who samples

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1778 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis
Ultimate origin
Latin exemplum
Etymology tree of sampler2
inherited borrowed derived
English sample
English sampler

Etymology

The person or device that takes samples is formed from English sample + -er.[4][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person whose business is to sample goods: 1778, in Pryce's Mineralogia Cornubiensis.[4][8][17]

Semantic evolution

From the person who tests the quality of a product by its samples the word was extended to a device that takes samples for scientific study (1902).[4][5] With the new sense of the verb sample, to take excerpts of recorded sound or music, it came to mean an electronic device or program used to do this (1985), and also the person who uses one (1988).[4]

Timeline

  • 1778 – a person who samples goods.[4][17]
  • 1902 – a device for taking samples.[4]
  • 1985 – an electronic device for sampling sounds or music.[4]
  • 1988 – a musician who samples recordings.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who takes samples, especially one who tests the quality of a product from samples of it: a grain sampler.[18][8][9][4]
  2. A device for taking samples, as of water, soil or air, for analysis.[9][4]
  3. (music) An electronic device or program that records sounds and plays them back as part of a new piece.[18][4]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  14. ^ Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Sampler.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/sampler. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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