utmost

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English utmest, also utemest,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ūtemest, also ūtmest,^[4][2][5][6] a double superlative of ūt (“out”) or ūte with the suffix -mest;^[4][5][2] compare foremost and inmost.^[4][5] The OED calls the forms in ū- rare, chiefly northern variants of the usual ȳtemest,^[4][7] and Barnhart calls ūtmest Anglian.^[5] The shortened vowel of utmost may come partly from the double consonant and partly from the influence of utter,^[4] and the ending was altered under the influence of most.^[8] The Old English adverb comes from Proto-Germanic *ūt, which also gave Gothic 𐌿𐍄 (ut), Old Norse út, Old Saxon ūt, Dutch uit, Old High German ūz and German aus.^[9] Skeat called it a doublet of outmost.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Outermost, farthest from the centre: in the Old English Vespasian Psalter, before 830,^[5][4] and in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The extended sense "of the greatest or highest degree, extreme" appears before 1325, in a prose psalter,^[4][5][3] and the sense "latest, last" in the 15th century, in the Towneley Plays, though it is now rare.^[4][11] The noun, the farthest part or limit of something, goes back to Old English and is now only archaic;^[4][8] the noun for the greatest possible degree is from 1472,^[4] and the phrase one's utmost, one's very best, from the early 17th century,^[12] first in Chapman's translation of the Iliad.^[4] To the utmost is recorded from about 1450, and at the utmost, at the very most, from 1619.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "extreme; placed at the extremity", deriving it from utter.^[13]

Timeline

• before 830 – ūtmest, outermost, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[5]
• before 1325 – of the greatest or highest degree.^[4][5]
• c. 1450 – to the utmost.^[4]
• 1472 – noun, the greatest possible degree or amount.^[4]
• before 1500 – last, final, in the Towneley Plays.^[4]
• c. 1611 – one's utmost, one's very best, in Chapman.^[4][12]
• 1619 – at the utmost, at the most.^[4]
• 1713 – furthest extended, greatest in extent.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the greatest possible degree or amount; extreme: The repairs were done with the utmost care.^[14][8][4]
2. Farthest away; most remote or outermost: the utmost villages of the valley.^[14][8][4]
3. (rare) Last or final.^[8][4]

Noun

1. The greatest possible degree, amount or extent, as in do one's utmost, to try as hard as one can.^[14][8][4]
2. to the utmost: to the greatest possible degree.^[4][8]
3. at the utmost: at the very most.^[4]
4. (archaic) The farthest point, part or limit of something.^[8][4]

Related words

• outermost
• outmost
• uttermost
• out
• utter
• foremost
• inmost
• most

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins