urgency

Etymology

It is formed from English urgent + -ency,^[2][3][4][5] while Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com and Klein have it borrowed from Late Latin urgentia (“pressure”).^[6][7][8] The OED allows either origin, and Etymonline thinks it was probably formed in English.^[2][4] Both go back to Latin urgēns (“pressing”), the present participle of urgeō (“to press hard, urge”),^[2][6][4] the source of urge.^[4] The OED compares Italian urgenza, Spanish urgencia and Portuguese urgencia, and the English urgence,^[2] which Etymonline dates to the 1590s.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being urgent; pressing importance: 1540, in an Act of Parliament of Henry VIII.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1530s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From "pressing importance" the word spread to the pressure that a person brings to bear, urgent entreaty or insistence (1611, in Cotgrave),^[2][3] to the stress of wind or weather (1660),^[2][6] to an urgent need or situation (1647),^[2][3] and to a driving impulse or motive (1664).^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "pressure of difficulty or necessity", quoting Gulliver's Travels.^[5] In medicine it is now a compelling need to urinate or defecate.^[6]

Timeline

• 1540 – the state of being urgent; pressing importance.^[2][6]
• 1611 – urgent entreaty, insistence.^[2]
• 1647 – an urgent need or situation.^[2]
• 1660 – stress of wind or weather.^[2]
• 1664 – a driving impulse or motive.^[2]
• 1816 – an impelling or prompting force or quality, in Scott.^[2]
• 1823 – plural, earnest entreaties.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being urgent; pressing importance that calls for prompt action: The flood warnings gave the repairs a new urgency.^[9][6][2]
2. A pressing need or situation.^[9][2][3]
3. Earnest insistence or entreaty; importunity.^[6][2][3]
4. A force or impulse that drives one on; an urge.^[6][2]
5. (medicine) A compelling need to urinate or defecate.^[6]

Related words

• urgent
• urge
• urgence

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin