subject

Pronunciation

• IPA: noun, adjective: /ˈsʌb.dʒɪkt/, /ˈsʌb.dʒekt/; verb: /səbˈdʒekt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English suget, subget,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French suget, subget (modern French sujet),^[3][4] from Latin subiectus (“lying under, near; subjected, subdued”),^[3][5] the past participle of subiciō (“I place under, throw under, make subject”),^[3][2] from sub- “under” and the combining form of iacere “to throw”.^[3][5] Etymonline takes these to the roots Proto-Indo-European *upo (“under”) and Proto-Indo-European *ye- (“to throw, impel”).^[3] The Middle English forms included sugges, sogetis, subgit and sugette,^[3] and the spelling was re-Latinized in the 16th century.^[3][4] The senses in grammar, logic and philosophy come directly from Latin subiectum “foundation, subject of a proposition”, the neuter noun use, which is a loan translation of Aristotle's Greek hypokeimenon “that which lies beneath”.^[3][5][2] The verb is inherited from Middle English subjecten, from Medieval Latin subiectāre (“to place beneath”), a frequentative of subicere.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person under the rule of another: about 1315 in the OED's sense of one bound to a superior by allegiance or service,^[6] and the early 14th century in Etymonline;^[3] Barnhart's first example is sugge, before 1333, in Shoreham's Poems.^[5] The adjective, “obedient, submissive”, is also early 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

A subject of a monarch or state is from 1340.^[6] In philosophy the word named the substance of a thing, as opposed to its attributes, from the late 14th century,^[7][4] when subject matter, “that upon which an agent works”, also appears, from Medieval Latin subiecta materia, a loan translation of Aristotle's Greek.^[3] In logic the term of which something is affirmed or denied is from the 1550s.^[3][8] The sense “topic, matter treated” is from 1563,^[8] and the subject matter of an art or science from the 1540s.^[3] The general sense, a person or thing acted on, is from the 1590s,^[3] the theme of a painting or other work of art from 1614,^[8] and the grammatical subject of a verb from 1615^[8] or the 1630s.^[3] A dead body used for dissection is from 1702,^[8] and the thinking subject, the conscious self, is from the 17th–18th century.^[8][4] The verb, “to make subject by force”, is from the late 14th century,^[3] 1382 in the OED,^[6] and “to expose (to something)” from the early 15th.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1315 – one bound to a superior by allegiance.^[6]
• early 14th century – adjective, obedient, submissive.^[3]
• 1340 – a subject of a monarch.^[6]
• 1382 – verb, to bring under rule.^[6]
• late 14th century – subject matter.^[3]
• 1550s – the subject of a proposition in logic.^[3]
• 1563 – a topic.^[8]
• 1590s – a person or thing acted upon.^[3]
• 1614 – the subject of a work of art.^[8]
• 1615 – the grammatical subject.^[8]
• 1702 – a body for dissection.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who lives under the rule of a monarch or government and owes it allegiance.
2. The topic of a talk, piece of writing or thought.
3. A branch of knowledge studied, as at school.
4. The person, scene or thing shown in a work of art; the theme of a piece of music.
5. A person or animal on which an experiment or treatment is carried out.
6. (grammar) The word or phrase in a sentence that the predicate is about, usually the doer of the action.
7. (logic) The term of a proposition about which something is affirmed or denied.
8. (philosophy) The thinking mind, the self, as opposed to its objects.

Adjective

1. Under the power or authority of another.
2. Prone or liable: subject to colds.
3. Depending on a condition: subject to approval.

Verb

1. To bring under control; to subjugate.
2. To cause to undergo or endure something: subjected to abuse.
3. To submit for consideration.

Word family

• subjection
• subjectless
• subjectable
• subjectability
• subjectedly
• subjectedness
• subjectlike
• unsubject

Related words

• subjective
• object
• project
• reject
• inject
• jet
• subjacent

Usage notes

In Scots subjects long meant a person's property or effects, and in law a subject is a thing over which a right is exercised, in Scotland a piece of property.^[9][7]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ 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)