status

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈsteɪ.təs/, US /ˈstæ.t̬əs/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin status (“condition, position, state, manner”),^[2][3][4] from the past participle stem of stāre (“to stand”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand, make or be firm”).^[2] It is a doublet of estate and state.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a Latin word for the height of something: 1671, in Evelyn's correspondence,^[3] the 1670s in Etymonline.^[2] In medicine it was the height or crisis of a disease, from 1693.^[5] Merriam-Webster dates its first sense to 1767.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In law, the legal standing of a person as determined by membership of a class, it is from 1791, in Boswell's Life of Johnson.^[3][5][2] Standing in society or a profession is from 1820, in Scott's The Monastery,^[3][5] and the general condition of things from 1860.^[5] Status quo, “the existing state of affairs”, is from 1833.^[3] In sociology it was used as an adjective by 1947, as in status anxiety,^[2] and status symbol is recorded by 1955.^[2]

Timeline

• 1671 – height.^[3]
• 1693 – the crisis of a disease.^[5]
• 1791 – legal standing.^[3][5]
• 1820 – social standing.^[3][5]
• 1833 – status quo.^[3]
• 1860 – a state of affairs.^[5]
• 1955 – status symbol.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person's position in relation to others; rank or standing.
2. High standing; prestige.
3. Legal condition: marital status.
4. A state of affairs; the situation at a given time.

Word family

• nonstatus
• achieved status
• ascribed status
• status offender
• status in quo
• status quo
• status quo ante
• status symbol

Related words

• state
• estate
• statue
• 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 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. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press