Etymologically
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statue

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 14:48. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈstætʃ.uː/, /ˈstæt.juː/, US /ˈstætʃ.uː/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French statue (“pagan statue, graven image”), estatue,[2][3][4] from Latin statua (“image, monumental figure”),[2][3] a back-formation from statuere, to cause to stand, set up,[2][3][5] from status, a standing, from stāre (“to stand”) (see stand),[3][2][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A figure of a person or animal in the round: about 1375, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[3][2][7]

Semantic evolution

Properly the word means that which is set up.[2] It was loosely used for an image or effigy from about 1386.[7] The verb, to represent in a statue, is from about 1607 and the sense to turn into a statue (1628) is obsolete;[7] other verbs tried and mostly discarded were statuize (1719) and statufy (1868).[2] Statues, the children's game, is attested from 1906.[2][7] Statuary is from 1563 and statuette 19th-century.[3][4] In East Anglia a statue was a figure set up in a field as a scarecrow.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1375 – a sculpted figure.[3]
  • 1563 – statuary.[3]
  • c. 1607 – the verb.[7]
  • 1906 – statues, the game.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A figure of a person or animal carved, modelled or cast in stone, bronze, wood or another solid material, usually life-size or larger.

Word family

  • statuelike
  • statued
  • statuesque
  • statuary
  • statuette
  • stature
  • statute
  • stand

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)