wait

Pronunciation

• IPA: /weɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English waiten, borrowed from Old Northern French waitier (“to watch”),^[2][3][4] a form of Old French gaitier, modern French guetter (“to watch for”),^[2][5][6] from Frankish *wahtōn (“to watch”),^[3][2] from Proto-Germanic *waht-,^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong, lively”).^[2][7] It is related to wake and watch,^[3][8][9] and to German Wacht (“a watch, guard”).^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To watch with hostile intent, spy, lie in wait: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “to stay until someone comes or something happens” is from 1375^[3] or the late 14th century,^[2] and “to look forward to” from before 1400.^[3] “To stand by in attendance” is late 14th century,^[2] and Barnhart dates the general sense “to attend, serve”, as in wait on, to 1509–10,^[3] and “to serve at table” to 1568.^[3][2] “To delay doing something”, as in it can wait, is from before 1633.^[3] The noun first meant a watchman or spy, about 1200,^[3][2] and in the late 14th century also an ambush, as in lie in wait.^[2] Town watchmen who sounded the hours on a trumpet gave the word the sense “town musicians” in the mid-15th century,^[2] and waits came to be street singers at Christmas in the 18th century.^[5] The noun “time spent waiting” is from 1855, at first the interval between acts in a theatre.^[2] Waiter is recorded before 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible, as an attendant or watchman.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – noun, a watchman.^[3]
• before 1200 – to lie in wait (Ancrene Riwle).^[3]
• before 1382 – waiter, an attendant (Wycliffe Bible).^[3]
• 1375 – to stay in expectation.^[3]
• late 14th century – lie in wait.^[2]
• mid-15th century – town musicians.^[2]
• 1568 – to serve at table.^[3]
• before 1633 – to delay.^[3]
• 1855 – noun, a time of waiting.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To stay in place, or delay acting, until something happens or someone comes.
2. To be ready or available: dinner is waiting.
3. To be postponed: that can wait.
4. To work as a waiter or waitress; to serve at table.
5. To await: wait one's turn.

Noun

1. The act of waiting, or the time spent waiting.
2. (historical) One of a band of town musicians.
3. (British, plural) Singers who perform in the streets at Christmas.

Word family

• wait-a-minute
• waiter
• waitperson
• waitress
• outwait
• waitstaff
• waitron
• wait-a-bit

Related words

• wake
• watch
• await

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that wait on in the sense “wait for” has been criticized for more than a century, but is now so common in educated speech and writing that the objections have lost force.^[11]

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 m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin