subjunctive

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin subiunctīvus (“serving to join, connecting”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which the OED records from the 3rd century as the name of a grammatical mood.^[6] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also allow a source in French subjonctif.^[7][8][9] The Latin adjective is formed from the past participial stem of subiungō (“to append, add at the end, place under”),^[6][3][4] from sub- (“under”) and iungō (“to join”),^[4][10] from Proto-Indo-European *yeug- (“to join”).^[4][2] It renders Ancient Greek ὑποτακτικός (hupotaktikós, “subordinated, subjoined”),^{[6][2][5][11][12]} from ὑποτάσσω (hupotássō, “to place under, subordinate”),^[5] and modus subiunctīvus renders ὑποτακτικὴ ἔγκλισις (hupotaktikḕ énklisis).^[6][4] The mood was so called because it was seen as suited to subordinate clauses, where the Greek one is almost always used.^[6][3][4] The Latin grammarians more often said coniunctīvus, the source of conjunctive, and Priscian preferred the other term.^[6] The OED compares Spanish subjuntivo (late 15th century) and Italian soggiuntivo (1561).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Grammar, of the mood: before 1504, in J. Holt's Lac Puerorum,^[6] about 1504 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[11] Barnhart first finds it in 1530, in Palsgrave,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid-16th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

English used the term in Latin form before it borrowed the word: Ælfric's Old English Grammar has svbivnctivvs, rendered Old English underðeodendlic.^[6] The adjective was at first purely grammatical, and the noun, for the mood or a verb in it, followed in 1575.^[6][11] From 1578 the adjective also meant more generally "subjoined, dependent", as of a part of speech that introduces a subordinate clause.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave both "subjoined to something else" and the grammatical sense.^[13] A general use, "supporting, additional to", is recorded from 1656 to 1839.^[6] By 1834 the adjective could describe what the mood expresses: something contingent or hypothetical.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1504 – adjective, of the verbal mood.^[6][11]
• 1575 – noun, the subjunctive mood, or a verb in it.^[6][11] Barnhart dates the noun to 1622,^[3] and Etymonline to the 1620s.^[4]
• 1578 – adjective, subjoined or dependent.^[6]
• 1656 – adjective, supporting or additional to something (obsolete by 1839).^[6]
• 1834 – adjective, contingent, hypothetical.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (grammar) Of or belonging to the verbal mood used for what is thought of as possible, wished for, doubted or supposed, and not stated as a fact: the subjunctive forms of the French verb.^[11][14][6]
2. Contingent, hypothetical.^[6]
3. (grammar) Subjoined or dependent.^[6][13]

Noun

1. (grammar) The subjunctive mood: Italian uses the subjunctive after many verbs of doubting.^[11][14][6]
2. (grammar) A verb or verb form in this mood: “were” is a subjunctive in “If she were taller, she could reach the shelf.”^[11][14][6]

Word family

• subjunctively

Related words

• subjoin
• subjunction
• conjunctive
• yoke
• join

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that people have been predicting the end of the English subjunctive since the late 18th century, although its range, much reduced over the last four or five centuries, has probably changed little in the last one or two; it is nearly invisible, which helps explain the belief.^[11] Dictionary.com says it survives in clauses contrary to fact, after verbs like wish, in that clauses after a demand or recommendation, and in fixed expressions such as so be it and as it were.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins