unify

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin ūnificō (“to make one”),^[2][3][4][5] which the OED and Klein call medieval Latin,^[6][7] though Barnhart and others take it as partly borrowed from Middle French unifier;^{[5][8][9][10][11]} the French verb is recorded from the 14th century,^[6][11] and in Anglo-Norman from the late 12th.^[12] The Latin verb is formed from ūnus (“one”) (as in uni-) and -ficō (as in -fy), the combining form of faciō (“to make”).^[11][7][6] Barnhart supposes a lost adjective *ūnificus.^[5] Etymonline traces the verb faciō to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”).^[11] The same Latin verb gave unificare and unificar.^[6][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make into one, to combine several things into one whole: 1502, in the English translation of the Ordynarye of Crysten Men printed by Wynkyn de Worde.^[6][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept its first, transitive sense of joining things or people into one whole, and gained an intransitive use, to become one, by 1817.^[11][3] The noun unification followed in 1851, borrowed from French or formed from unify.^[5][10] Merriam-Webster records a financial sense, to combine several issues of bonds into one.^[3]

Timeline

• 1502 – to make into one, combine into a whole.^[6][3][5]
• 1817 – intransitive, to become one.^[11]
• 1851 – the noun unification.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make several parts into one; to unite or bring together into a coherent whole: The coach worked to unify the squad after the transfer.^[14][3][6]
2. To become one; to consolidate.^[14][3]
3. (finance) To combine several issues of bonds into one.^[3]

Word family

• unifiable
• unifier
• disunify
• reunify
• unific
• unification

Related words

• unite
• unity
• union
• uniform

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins