Etymologically
Log in

utterance

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word utterance

English has two words spelled utterance: one is an old borrowing from French that means extremity, and the other a derivative of utter that means speech.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

  • /ˈʌtəɹəns/[5]

utterance1 extreme degree, bitter end

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1430 Lydgate, St. Margarete
Borrowed from
Old French outrance via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin ultrā

Etymology

The extreme degree is inherited from Middle English utteraunce, also uttraunce,[3] borrowed from Old French outrance, also oultrance,[1][2][6][4] with its form changed by association with the adjective utter.[2][6][4][3] The French noun means a going beyond bounds and is formed on outrer (“to go beyond”),[4][1][6] from outre (“beyond”), from Latin ultrā (“beyond”),[4][3][7] and Hoad and the American Heritage Dictionary name a Romance verb Vulgar Latin *ultrāre between the two.[6][8] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the later 14th century.[9] Etymonline instead derives this word directly from the English adjective.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A degree beyond measure; immoderate force: 1430–40, in Lydgate's Fall of Princes, with to bring to utterance, to overcome completely, from 1430.[1] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century,[10] and Hoad and Collins to the 13th.[6][11]

Semantic evolution

To the utterance, to the last extremity, is recorded before 1450, in Lovelich's Merlin, and with verbs such as fight from 1475;[1] at utterance, with the utmost force, lasted from 1480 to 1630.[1] The free noun and bring to utterance died out in the 1590s.[1] Weekley saw later use as chiefly an echo of Macbeth,[7] where the line runs "come, fate, into the list, And champion me to th' utterance", and Johnson (1755) quoted it with Cymbeline under the French outrance.[12] The phrase was revived in the 19th century and is now literary or archaic.[1][11] In Scots the word meant extremity of distress, in Sadler's Papers.[13]

Timeline

  • 1430 – to bring to utterance, to vanquish completely (obsolete by 1596); immoderate force, excess (obsolete by 1590).[1]
  • before 1450 – to the utterance, to the bitter end.[1]
  • 1475 – with fight, to fight to the utterance.[1]
  • 1480 – at utterance, with the utmost force (obsolete by 1630).[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic or literary) The utmost extremity; the bitter end, especially in to the utterance.[11][1][2][3]
  2. (obsolete, 1430–1590) Immoderate force or violence; excess.[1][2]

utterance2 something said, act of speaking

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1436 Rolls of Parliament
Ultimate origin
Middle Dutch ūteren
Etymology tree of utterance2
inherited borrowed derived
English utter
English utterance

Etymology

The word for speech is formed from English utter + -ance,[1][2][4][3] on the verb that Hoad takes from Middle Dutch ūteren (“to drive away, speak, show, make known”) and ūtern,[6] and that Etymonline sees as apparently merged with a native Middle English verb outen (“to disclose”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The disposal of goods by sale or barter: 1436, in the Rolls of Parliament.[1] The vocal sense follows closely, in R. Pecock: something said about 1454 and the act of speaking about 1456.[1] Etymonline dates "act of uttering" to about 1400,[10] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1400–50.[14]

Semantic evolution

The commercial sense reflects an old meaning of the verb, to put on the market or to sell,[6] and it died out in the 17th century, along with a rare sense of giving out from a store, last recorded in 1757.[1][2] Caxton used the word in 1474 for the power or manner of speech,[1] and Johnson (1755) gave "pronunciation; manner of speaking" and "vocal expression", with Milton's gave utterance to these words.[12] In 1662 it could even mean a physical outlet, in a translation of van Helmont.[1] In the 20th century the word became a term of linguistics, for a complete spoken or written expression of a thought, in A. H. Gardiner's Theory of Speech and Language (1932).[1][2]

Timeline

  • 1436 – the sale or barter of goods (obsolete by 1641).[1]
  • c. 1454 – something uttered; a statement.[1]
  • c. 1456 – the action of speaking.[1]
  • 1474 – the power or manner of speech.[1]
  • c. 1475 – a giving out from a store (rare, obsolete by 1757).[1]
  • 1662 – a place of exit, an outlet (obsolete).[1]
  • 1844 – the expelling of breath.[1]
  • 1932 – in linguistics, words forming the complete expression of a thought.[1][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Something said; a spoken or written statement, word or sound: Her every utterance was reported in the papers.[15][3][1][8]
  2. The act of speaking; vocal expression: The crowd gave utterance to its anger.[8][14][15][1]
  3. The power or manner of speaking: a slow, careful utterance.[8][14][1]
  4. (linguistics) An uninterrupted stretch of speech or writing, bounded by silence.[15][14][1]
  5. (obsolete, 1436–1641) The sale or disposal of goods.[1][2][3]

Word family

  • nonutterance
  • reutterance

References

  1. ^ 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 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  14. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

  • nap · also from Middle Dutch
  • tick · also from Middle Dutch
  • prop · also from Middle Dutch
  • rover · also from Middle Dutch
  • groove · also from Middle Dutch
  • mesh · also from Middle Dutch
  • slack · also from Middle Dutch
  • scum · also from Middle Dutch
Cite this entry

“Utterance.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/utterance. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·