Etymologically
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structure

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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The first sense is obsolete.[2] “That which is built, an edifice”, especially a large one, is from 1615, in Chapman's Odyssey,[3][7] and the arrangement of the parts of a whole, in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
  • 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