understand

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˌʌn.dəˈstænd/, US /ˌʌn.dɚˈstænd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English understanden, inherited from Old English understandan (“to comprehend, grasp the idea of”),^[2][3][4] a compound, from Old English under- + standan (“to stand”).^[3][4][5] Barnhart takes it literally as “to stand in the midst of, stand between”, with Old English under in the sense “among, between”, from Proto-Indo-European *nter- (“between, among”), related to Latin inter;^[3][2] other sources treat “among” as a sense of the ordinary under.^[2] Liberman notes that the Old English prefix meant both “under” and “between, among”, that understandan competed with forstandan, undergietan and other verbs of the same meaning, and that it may have arisen as a blend of these two.^[6] Similar verbs are Old Frisian understonda and, with another prefix, German verstehen,^[3][7] and Greek ἐπίσταμαι (epístamai, “I know how, I understand”), literally “I stand upon”.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To comprehend, grasp the meaning of: Old English understandan, 888 according to Liberman^[6] or before 899 according to Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Liberman notes that only the West Germanic languages have such verbs among the Germanic family, all based on the image of standing in a position from which one comes to know a thing;^[6] in Frisian, Dutch and German the rival compound with for- won out.^[6] In Middle English undertake could also mean “to accept, understand”.^[2] Understanding is recorded from the 11th century.^[7] The sense “to take as meant or implied” dates from the 16th century.^[7] In the 16th and 17th centuries the past participle had various forms, such as understanden and understanded, before understood, matching stood, became usual by 1600.^[3]

Timeline

• 888 – Old English understandan.^[6]
• 11th century – understanding.^[7]
• 16th century – to take as implied.^[7]
• c. 1600 – understood becomes the usual participle.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To grasp the nature, meaning or significance of; to comprehend.
2. To know thoroughly through long experience: understands children.
3. To grasp the language, sounds or symbols of.
4. To be sympathetic or tolerant toward.
5. To learn indirectly; to gather: I understand that she has left.
6. To take as meant or implied; to supply mentally.

Word family

• understandability
• understandable
• understandably
• understanding
• understood

Related words

• stand
• under
• undertake

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press