watch

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /wɒtʃ/, US /wɑːtʃ/, /wɔːtʃ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wacchen, inherited from Old English wæccan (“to keep watch, be awake”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *wakjan,^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong, lively”).^[2][4] It is essentially the same word as Old English wacian (“to be awake”), the source of wake, and was perhaps its Northumbrian form.^[2][5][3] The noun is inherited from Middle English wacche, from Old English wæcce (“a watching, vigil”).^[2][3][6] It is related to awake.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To keep watch, be awake: implied in Old English wæccende, “watching”, about 725, in Beowulf.^[3][8] The noun wæcce, a watching or vigil, is from 971.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old English to watch was to stay awake,^[7][5] a sense that lasted until the mid-17th century.^[8] “To be vigilant” is from about 1200,^[2][3] “to stand guard” from the late 14th century, and “to observe, keep under observation” from the mid-15th.^[2][5] The spelling with t appeared in the mid-15th century.^[3] The noun was one of the divisions of the night from about 1200, a shift of guard duty from the mid-13th century, and the body of men patrolling a town by night from the late 13th.^[2] A watch was an alarm attached to a clock in 1440, and a small timepiece in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost (1588);^[3][2] the first watches were alarm clocks, meant to wake sleepers.^[7] Watchman and watchword are from about 1400,^[3] watchtower from 1544, watchful from 1548 and watchdog from 1610, in The Tempest.^[3] Walter Scott linked the watches of the night with sleeplessness in 1826.^[7] Watch out is American, by 1845, and watch it! from 1916.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English wæccende, watching (Beowulf).^[3]
• 971 – noun, a vigil.^[3]
• c. 1200 – to be vigilant; a division of the night.^[2]
• mid-13th century – a shift of guard duty.^[2]
• c. 1400 – watchman, watchword.^[3]
• 1440 – an alarm on a clock.^[3]
• mid-15th century – to observe.^[2]
• 1588 – a timepiece (Love's Labour's Lost).^[3]
• 1610 – watchdog (The Tempest).^[3]
• 1845 – watch out.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To look at or observe attentively.
2. To look on as a spectator.
3. To wait and look out for something.
4. To keep a watchful eye on; to guard.
5. To stay awake at night as a guard, or as a religious vigil.
6. To keep informed about; to follow.

Noun

1. The act of watching or guarding; surveillance.
2. A person or group keeping guard, especially at night.
3. A period of guard duty, or one of the divisions of the night.
4. (nautical) A period of duty on a ship, or the crew on duty.
5. A small portable timepiece worn on the wrist or carried.

Word family

• stopwatch
• wristwatch
• deathwatch
• dogwatch
• overwatch
• watchcase
• watchful
• watchless

Related words

• wake
• awake
• wait
• watchman
• watchword

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 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press