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vision

Etymology and origin of the English word vision

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1290
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman visioun via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin (videre)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English vision
English television

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈvɪʒ.ən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English visioun,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman visioun, Old French vision “sight, view; dream, supernatural sight”,[3][2] from Latin vīsiō (“act of seeing, sight, thing seen”) (accusative vīsiōnem),[3][2] a noun of action from vīsus, the past participle of vidēre (“to see”),[3][2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *weid- (“to see”).[3][4] It is related to visit, visual, revise and provide.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something seen otherwise than by ordinary sight, in a dream or trance, especially a supernatural apparition: about 1290 in the OED,[6] about 1300 in Etymonline and Barnhart.[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

A narrative account of a vision is from the mid-14th century.[3] The action of seeing something not actually present to the eye is from 1382.[6] By the early 15th century it meant a visual perception,[3] and the bodily sense of sight, the faculty of seeing, is from about 1491.[6][2] A vivid mental concept is from 1592,[6][2] and a person or scene of unusual beauty from 1823.[6] The ability to conceive what might be achieved, especially in politics, as in a statesman of great vision, is from 1904,[6][2] and “statesmanlike foresight” from 1926.[3] The verb, “to show as in a vision”, is from 1594.[6][7] Visionary is from 1648.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1290 – a supernatural apparition.[6]
  • 1382 – seeing what is not present.[6]
  • c. 1491 – the sense of sight.[6][2]
  • 1592 – a mental concept.[6]
  • 1648 – visionary.[2]
  • 1823 – a person of great beauty.[6]
  • 1904 – foresight, imagination.[6][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The faculty of sight; eyesight.
  2. Unusual discernment or foresight: a leader of vision.
  3. A mental image produced by the imagination.
  4. Something seen in a dream, trance or ecstasy, especially a supernatural appearance.
  5. A person or thing of extraordinary beauty.
  6. The way one sees or conceives of something.

Verb

  1. To see in or as if in a vision; to envision.

Word family

  • visional
  • visionally
  • visionless
  • monovision
  • radiovision
  • revision
  • stereovision
  • television

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Derived terms

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vision.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/vision. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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