supply

Pronunciation

• IPA: /səˈplaɪ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English supplien,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French soupleer (“to fill up, make full”), later supplier,^[3][2][4] and directly from Latin supplēre (“to fill up, complete”),^[3][2] from sub- (“up from below”) and plēre (“to fill”),^[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“to fill”),^[3] the root of full.^[2] The noun is from the verb.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To help, support, maintain: 1375, in Barbour's The Bruce.^[2][5] The earliest uses were mainly Scottish.^[4]

Semantic evolution

“To fill up, make up for, compensate” is from the late 14th century,^[3] before 1398 in Barnhart.^[2] The meaning “to furnish, provide” is first found in Skelton's Magnificence, about 1520,^[2] the 1520s in Etymonline.^[3] The noun first meant “assistance, relief” (1423), chiefly in Scots and now obsolete;^[2][6] the act of fulfilling a need is from 1500–20, in Dunbar,^[2] and a quantity supplied is first found in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens (1607).^[2] A person who takes another's place temporarily, especially a preacher, is from the 1580s,^[3] and in Scotland a supply was a substitute minister.^[7] Supplies, provisions, is from about 1650.^[3] In economics the amount of goods available for sale is by 1776, the counterpart of demand,^[3] and supply and demand is in Carlyle (1843).^[2] Supply-side economics is from 1976.^[3]

Timeline

• 1375 – to help, support.^[2][5]
• before 1398 – to fill up, make up for.^[2]
• 1423 – noun, assistance.^[2]
• c. 1520 – to furnish, provide.^[2]
• 1607 – a quantity supplied.^[2]
• c. 1650 – supplies.^[3]
• 1776 – economic supply.^[3]
• 1843 – supply and demand.^[2]
• 1976 – supply-side.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make available for use; to provide.
2. To furnish or equip with something needed.
3. To make up for a lack; to satisfy a need.
4. To fill a position temporarily as a substitute, as in a church.

Noun

1. An amount available for use; a stock.
2. supplies: materials or provisions kept for use.
3. (economics) The amount of goods available for sale at a given price.
4. The act of supplying: the supply of water.

Word family

• supplier
• unsupplied
• oversupply
• presupply
• resupply
• undersupply
• supply-side
• supply-sider

Related words

• suppletion
• supplement
• complete
• full
• plenty
• replete

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 i j k l m n o p q r s Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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)