structure

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈstrʌk.tʃə/, US /ˈstrʌk.tʃɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin strūctūra (“a fitting together, adjustment; a building, mode of building”),^[2][3] perhaps through structure,^[4][5] from strūctus, past participle of struere (“to pile up, build, arrange”),^[2][3][6] related to struēs (“heap”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *streu-, an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *stere- (“to spread”).^[2] The verb is from the noun.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action or process of building: about 1440 in the OED,^[7] 1440 in Barnhart, who reads it as “building materials”,^[3] and the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is obsolete.^[2] “That which is built, an edifice”, especially a large one, is from 1615, in Chapman's Odyssey,^[3][7] and the arrangement of the parts of a whole, in anatomy and in general, from the same year,^[7] the 1610s in Etymonline.^[2] The manner of building is from 1650.^[7][3] It was applied to literary works and sentences from 1746,^[7] to rocks and minerals from 1813,^[7] and in linguistics deep structure and surface structure are from the 1960s.^[7] The verb is found occasionally from the late 16th century^[2] and before 1693 in the OED,^[7][3] but is rare before the 20th century.^[5][8] Structural is from 1835.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – the process of building.^[7][3]
• 1615 – a building; the arrangement of parts.^[7][3]
• 1650 – manner of building.^[7][3]
• before 1693 – verb, to build into a structure.^[7]
• 1746 – structure of a sentence or text.^[7]
• 1835 – structural.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Something made of parts put together in a particular way, such as a building or bridge.
2. The way in which the parts of a whole are arranged; makeup.
3. The relations between the parts of a complex whole, such as a society or an organization.
4. (biology) The arrangement of the tissues and organs of a living thing.

Verb

1. To give form or arrangement to.

Word family

• structureless
• structurelessness
• destructure
• megastructure
• nonstructure
• prestructure
• technostructure
• ultrastructure

Related words

• infrastructure
• macrostructure
• microstructure
• restructure
• structural
• structuralism
• structured
• substructure
• superstructure
• unstructured
• construct
• instruct
• destroy
• obstruct
• industry
• strew
• construe

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 l m 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 Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press