subsection

Etymology

It is formed from English sub- + section;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the OED compares French sous-section, recorded from 1790.^[2] Section is from Old French section and directly from Latin sectiō (“a cutting, cutting off, division”), from secō (“to cut”),^[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A division of a section, especially of a written text: 1621, in a title by R. Burton.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s and Dictionary.com to 1615–25.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as a subdivision of a larger section, a section of a section.^[7] In biology it was used from 1813 for a subordinate division of a section in classification,^[2] and since 1907 the army used it for part of a gun battery, one gun with its crew and equipment, a sense now historical.^[2] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged also records the wider sense of a subordinate part or branch of something.^[4]

Timeline

• 1621 – a division of a section of a document or text.^[2][4]
• 1813 – in biology, a subordinate division of a section.^[2]
• 1907 – military, a subdivision of a gun battery (now historical).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A division of a section, especially of a document, law or report: The fee is set out in subsection 4 of the regulations.^[2][8][4][9]
2. A subordinate part or branch of something larger.^[4]
3. In biology, a subordinate division of a section in classification.^[2]

Related words

• section
• sector
• dissect
• segment

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press