schedule

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈʃedʒ.uːl/, /ˈʃed.juːl/, US /ˈskedʒ.uːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sedule, cedule,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French cedule (modern French cédule),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin schedula (“strip of paper”), a diminutive of scheda (“one of the strips forming a papyrus sheet”) (also scida),^[2][3] from Ancient Greek σχίδη (skhídē, “splinter”), from the stem of skhízein “to cleave, split”.^[2][3] The spelling with sch- began in the 15th century in imitation of Latin and was regular from the mid-17th century.^[2][3] Spanish cédula and German Zettel have the same source.^[2] It is related to schism and shed.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A slip of paper with writing on it, a ticket or label, a sense now obsolete: 1397 in the OED and Barnhart,^[5][3] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was especially a slip attached to a document as an appendix, giving details in tabular form (about 1420), a sense kept in American tax forms.^[2][3] The printed timetable is from 1863, in railway use, first American,^[2][5] and the sense became general in the United States in the mid-19th century.^[6] The verb is from 1855, “to make a schedule of”, and 1862, “to include in a schedule”;^[2][5] to list a building for preservation is from 1921.^[5] The pronunciation long remained “sed-yul” after the change of spelling;^[2][3] the British “shed-yul” is from French influence, and the American “sked-yul” from Webster's practice, based on the Greek.^[2] Dorothy Parker is said to have told the British actor Herbert Marshall, after his repeated mentions of his “shedule”, that he was full of “skit”.^[6]

Timeline

• 1397 – a written slip.^[5][3]
• c. 1420 – an appendix to a document.^[3]
• mid-17th century – the spelling with sch-.^[2]
• 1855 – verb, to make a schedule of.^[2]
• 1863 – a timetable.^[2][5]
• 1921 – to list a building.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A plan of work or events, with the time allotted to each.
2. A list of times of departure and arrival; a timetable.
3. A written or printed list in tabular form, especially one attached to a document.

Verb

1. To plan or appoint for a certain time.
2. To enter on a schedule, or make up a schedule for.

Word family

• schedular
• scheduler
• subschedule
• preschedule
• reschedule
• unscheduled

Related words

• schism
• shed
• schist
• schizophrenia

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 l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press