code English · revision 3404

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1303 (Mannyng, Handlyng Synne)|origins=la caudex}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /kəʊd/, US /koʊd/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|code]], [[bor|fro|code|t=system of laws, law-book]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) from [[la|cōdex|t=a book; a code of laws]],^(Etymonline)^(AHD 2000) a later spelling of [[m|la|caudex|t=tree trunk; a block split into tablets for writing]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Klein 1966)^(MWU 2024) The book was first made of wooden tablets covered with wax.^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate it to Latin [[m|la|cūdere|t=to beat]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) and Etymonline reports de Vaan's derivation through Proto-Italic *kaud-ek- from PIE *kehu-d- “cleaved, separate”.^(Etymonline) Latin codex itself was used in English from the 16th to the 18th century for a code of laws, but now means only a manuscript volume.^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ One of the systematic collections of statutes made for the later Roman emperors, especially Justinian's: 1303,^(OED 1989)^(COED 2004) in Mannyng's ''Handlyng Synne''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A digest of a country's laws is from 1735,^(OED 1989) and a set of rules on any subject from 1809.^(OED 1989) The sense “system of secret writing, cipher” is from 1808, in a dispatch of Wellington's,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) and Word Origins connects it with the navy's use of flags for signals.^(Cresswell 2021) ''Code-name'' is from 1879, in telegraphy.^(Etymonline) A system of symbols for expressing information, as in a computer, is from 1946,^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) and extended uses in biology, such as the ''genetic code'', from 1958.^(OED 1989) The verb, “to put into code”, is from 1815;^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) “to put into computer code” is from 1947, and the intransitive “to write computer code” by 1987.^(Etymonline) In American hospital slang, to ''code'' is to go into cardiac arrest.^(AHD)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1303 – a Roman legal code.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1735 – a digest of a country's laws.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1808 – a cipher.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1809 – a set of rules.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1815 – verb, to put into code.^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1879 – ''code-name''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1946 – computer code.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1958 – the genetic code.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A systematic collection of [[law|alt=laws]].^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+ # A set of rules of conduct or procedure: ''a dress code''.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+ # A system of signals or symbols used to send messages, often secretly; a [[cipher]].^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ # Instructions for a [[computer]]; a [[program]].^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # ''(biology)'' The [[genetic code]].^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To put into code.^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+ # To write computer programs.^(Etymonline)

+ # ''(biology)'' To specify the genetic code for something.^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[codeless]]

+ * [[codable]]

+ * [[coder]]

+ * [[BCD]]

+ * [[decode]]

+ * [[encode]]

+ * [[recode]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[codex]]

+ * [[codify]]

+ * [[codification]]

+ * [[codicil]]

+ * [[coda]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The OED records two unrelated obsolete nouns spelled ''code'': “pitch, cobbler's wax”, from 1358, and “a chrism-cloth”, from about 1420.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}