culture English · revision 3306

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1440|origins=la colere}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈkʌl.tʃə/, US /ˈkʌl.tʃɚ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|culture|t=cultivation, tillage]],^(AHD 2000)^(Barnhart 1988) [[bor|frm|culture]], a learned borrowing from Latin, and directly [[bor|la|cultūra|t=a tending, care, cultivation, agriculture]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) from [[m|la|cultus]], the past participle of [[m|la|colere|t=to tend, guard; to till, cultivate]],^(Etymonline)^(AHD 2000)^(MWU 2024) which is also the source of [[colony]] and [[cultivate]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Klein 1966) The verb is from Middle French culturer, from the noun.^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The tilling of land: probably 1440^(Barnhart 1988) or the mid-15th century;^(Etymonline) the OED's earliest sense, “worship”, from 1483, is obsolete and rare,^(OED 1989) and a cultivated field is from 1557.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From tilling the soil the word moved early in the 16th century to the cultivation of the mind or manners, first recorded about 1510 in Sir Thomas More's works;^(Barnhart 1988)^(Cresswell 2021) the Century Dictionary noted that this use was not common before the 19th century except as a conscious metaphor, though Cicero had used it in Latin.^(Etymonline) The rearing of a crop is from the 1620s, transferred to fish and oysters by 1796, and to bacteria grown in a prepared medium in 1880.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) “Learning and taste, the intellectual side of civilization” is by 1805, in Wordsworth's ''Prelude'',^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) and the collective customs and achievements of a people by 1867.^(Etymonline) ''Culture vulture'' is from 1947.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1440 – tillage.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1510 – cultivation of the mind.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1510 – verb, to cultivate.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1620s – rearing of a crop.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1805 – intellectual side of civilization.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1867 – customs and achievements of a people.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1880 – a culture of bacteria.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1947 – ''culture vulture''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[custom|alt=customs]], [[art|alt=arts]], beliefs and institutions of a people or group, passed down from generation to generation.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # Intellectual and artistic achievement, and the appreciation of it.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # The attitudes and behaviour typical of a group or organization: ''company culture''.^(AHD)^(MWU 2024)

+ # ''(biology)'' The growing of [[microorganism|alt=microorganisms]] or cells in a prepared [[nutrient]] medium; such a growth.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # The [[cultivation]] of the soil or of plants or animals.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To grow microorganisms or cells in a culture.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+ # ''(rare)'' To cultivate.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[agriculture]]

+ * [[acculturation]]

+ * [[cult]]

+ * [[cultivate]]

+ * [[culture shock]]

+ * [[cultural]]

+ * [[cultured]]

+ * [[horticulture]]

+ * [[colony]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Culture'' is a broad word for refinement of mind and taste,^(AHD) while ''cultivation'' stresses the effort that produced it, and ''breeding'' good manners learned from upbringing.^(AHD)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}