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solve

Etymology and origin of the English word solve

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1440
Borrowed from
Latin solvere via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin (luere)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /sɒlv/, US /sɑːlv/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English solven, borrowed from Latin solvere (“to loosen, dissolve, release, pay”),[2][3][4] from *se-luō, from sē- (“apart”) and luere (“to release, atone”),[3][4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *leu- (“to loosen, divide”).[2] It is related to absolve, dissolve, resolve, solution, soluble and solvent.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To disperse, dissipate or loosen: before 1398 in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum, the late 14th century in Etymonline,[3][2] about 1440 in the OED.[7] In Middle English it was used especially in medicine, of dissolving a substance in a liquid.[2]

Semantic evolution

To explain, clear up or answer is from the 1530s, before 1533 in the OED,[2][7] although the matching noun solution, in the sense of an explanation, is recorded from 1375.[3] To pay a debt is from 1558.[7] In mathematics, to work out the answer to a problem is from 1737.[2][7]

Timeline

  • a. 1398 – to loosen, disperse.[3]
  • a. 1533 – to explain, answer.[7]
  • 1558 – to pay off.[7]
  • 1737 – in mathematics.[2][7]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To find the answer to a problem or the explanation of a mystery.
  2. (mathematics) To work out the answer to a problem or the roots of an equation.

Word family

  • solver
  • presolve
  • solvable

Usage notes

Solve, decipher, resolve and unravel share the sense of clearing up something puzzling or hard to understand.[8]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Solve.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/solve. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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