Etymologically
Log in

schedule

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 20:51. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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