Etymologically
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variant

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:33. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈvɛəɹi.ənt/[1]
  • US: /ˈvæɹi.ənt/, /ˈvɛɹi.ənt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English variaunt,[2][3] borrowed from Old French variant,[4][5][6] and also comes directly from Latin variāns (“changing, varying”),[2][3][7] the present participle of variō (“to change, vary”), from varius (“various, diverse”).[8][3][9] It is related to vary and various.[3][9] The noun was formed from the adjective in the mid-19th century.[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of things, tending to vary or change, not uniform: c. 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.[4][2] Barnhart dates the form variaunt to about 1380.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the adjective was used of people who were fickle and changeable (c. 1386, in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale), and briefly of people who disagreed (1412–20).[4][3] It also meant varied or diverse (c. 1380) and differing from something else (c. 1400),[4][3] the sense that led to the modern ones; in biology it was used from 1881 of what departs from the type.[4][3] The noun, a form that differs from others of the same thing, is recorded from 1848 or 1849,[2][3][10][4] with the textual sense of a different reading in two copies of a work from 1855,[4] or 1861 according to Etymonline,[3] and the sense of a different version of a story or song from 1872.[4] Weekley used variant for a parallel form of a word, such as burden beside burthen.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 1374 – of things, changing, not uniform.[4]
  • c. 1380 – varied, diverse.[4]
  • c. 1386 – of people, fickle.[4]
  • c. 1400 – differing from something.[4][3]
  • 1848 – noun, a different form of something.[2][3]
  • 1855 – noun, a different reading in a text.[4]
  • 1872 – noun, a different version of a story or song.[4]
  • 1881 – (biology) varying from the type.[4][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A form or version of something that differs in some way from other forms of the same thing: a regional variant of the recipe.
  2. A different spelling or pronunciation of the same word.
  3. A different reading of a passage in two or more copies of a text.
  4. (statistics) A variate.
  5. (biology) An organism, strain or gene that differs from the type.

Adjective

  1. Differing from a standard or from others of its kind: variant spellings.
  2. (obsolete) Changeable, fickle.

Word family

  • invariant
  • nonvariant
  • unvariant

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray