utilize

Etymology

It is borrowed from French utiliser (1792), from utilizzare (1760),^[2][3][4] from utile (“useful”), ūtilis (“usable, useful”),^[3][5] from ūtor (“to use, profit by”), the source of use.^[3][4] Merriam-Webster and Klein describe the French verb as formed on utile with the suffix that became -ize.^[6][7] Barnhart notes that utile "useful" also existed in English from 1484, now obsolete.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make useful, put to use: Etymonline dates the verb to 1794,^[3] while the OED, Merriam-Webster and Barnhart give 1807, from Joel Barlow's Columbiad,^[2][6][5] and Dictionary.com 1800–10.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word spread quickly in the 19th century: in 1873 Fitzedward Hall remarked that utilize was "fast antiquating improve" in the sense "turn to account".^[3] The noun utilization followed in 1847, perhaps under the influence of utilisation.^[5] A rare intransitive use, to make oneself useful, is found in Howells in 1883.^[2]

Timeline

• 1794 – to make use of.^[3]
• 1807 – first OED quotation.^[2][6]
• 1847 – utilization.^[5]
• 1883 – intransitive, to make oneself useful (rare).^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make practical or profitable use of something; to turn to account: The new plant utilizes waste heat from the furnace.

Word family

• utilizable
• utilizer
• utilization
• overutilize
• reutilize
• underutilize

Related words

• use
• utility
• utile
• usage

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that critics often call utilize a needless substitute for use, and that many examples could take use instead with no loss but pretentiousness; but utilize can mean to find a profitable or practical use for something, which use alone does not say.^[9] The spelling utilise is chiefly British.^[6][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin