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
- To look at or observe attentively.
- To look on as a spectator.
- To wait and look out for something.
- To keep a watchful eye on; to guard.
- To stay awake at night as a guard, or as a religious vigil.
- To keep informed about; to follow.
Noun
- The act of watching or guarding; surveillance.
- A person or group keeping guard, especially at night.
- A period of guard duty, or one of the divisions of the night.
- (nautical) A period of duty on a ship, or the crew on duty.
- 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
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ 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
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press