Etymologically
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supply

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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

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)