compression English · revision 39522

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1400, Lanfranc's Cirurgie|origins=la comprimō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /kəmˈpɹɛʃ.ən/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|fro|compression]],^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002)^(ODE 2010) and partly a direct borrowing of [[la|compressiō|t=a pressing together]],^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) a noun of action formed on [[m|la|compressus]], the past participle of [[m|la|comprimō|t=to press together, squeeze]],^(Etymonline)^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)^(Klein 1966) which is built from [[m|la|com-|t=together]] and the verb that gave [[press]].^(Dictionary.com 2016) The Middle English form was [[m|enm|compressioun]].^(MWU 2024)^(MED) In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century.^(AND)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The act of pressing or squeezing something together: c. 1400, in Lanfranc's ''Cirurgie'', a surgical treatise,^(OED 2026)^(MED) where Middle English medical writers also used it of a constriction.^(MED)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ For two centuries the word belonged mainly to surgery: Middle English writers used it of pressure on the brain and of a wound bound with plaster,^(MED) and in 1599 it could even name a compress itself.^(OED 2026)^(HTOED) The state of being compressed is recorded from 1603, in Florio's translation of Montaigne.^(OED 2026) Johnson (1755) defined it as the forcing of a body's parts closer together "by violence".^(Johnson 1755) From 1759, in Samuel Johnson's ''Idler'', it was used of thought and language packed into few words,^(OED 2026) part of a pattern, going back to the second half of the 16th century, of describing writing in terms of solidity and density.^(Mapping Metaphor) The same year it could also mean a straitened or oppressed condition.^(OED 2026)^(HTOED) Engines brought technical senses: the reduction in volume of steam left in a cylinder (1859) and of the fuel and air mixture in an internal-combustion engine (1887).^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) Electronics added the reduction of a signal's variability in 1938,^(OED 2026) and computing the storing of data in less space,^(AHD 2024) one of many computing uses drawn from words for size since the second half of the 20th century.^(Mapping Metaphor)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1400 – pressing together, squeezing.^(OED 2026)^(MED)

+ * 1599 – a compress (obsolete, rare).^(OED 2026)

+ * 1603 – the state of being compressed.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1759 – of language, conciseness; also an oppressed condition.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1814 – ''compression of the poles'', the flattening of a planet.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1859 – in a steam engine, the reduction in volume of steam.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1887 – in an internal-combustion engine;^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) also ''compressional wave''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1938 – in electronics, reducing a signal's variability.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The act of [[compress|alt=compressing]] something, or the state of being compressed: ''the compression of the spring under a heavy load''.^(Collins 2023)^(AHD 2024)^(MWU 2024)

+ # In an [[engine]], the reduction in volume of the fuel and air mixture before ignition; also the degree of this.^(Collins 2023)^(AHD 2024)^(OED 2026)

+ # (computing) The encoding of [[data]] so that it takes up less storage space.^(AHD 2024)

+ # (electronics) The reduction of the range of a [[signal]].^(OED 2026)

+ # The condensing of thought or expression into few words.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[compressional]]

+ * [[noncompression]]

+ * [[overcompression]]

+ * [[precompression]]

+ * [[supercompression]]

+ * [[compression ratio]]

+ * [[compression wave]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[compress]]

+ * [[compressor]]

+ * [[press]]

+ * [[pressure]]

+ * [[depression]]

+ * [[impression]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}