settlement English · revision 4954

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1620s|origins=en settle, en -ment}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈset.əl.mənt/, US /ˈset̬.əl.mənt/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed [[af|en|settle|-ment]].^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The settling and clarifying of a liquid, and the act of fixing or steadying: the 1620s in Etymonline and the early 17th century in the Shorter Oxford.^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) The placing of things in a fixed position is from 1648 in the OED and MWU.^(OED 1989)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Establishment of a person in life, marriage or a post is from 1651,^(OED 1989) and legal residence in a parish, giving a right to poor relief, from 1662.^(OED 1989) A colony, a tract of country newly settled, is from the 1690s,^(Etymonline) and a small frontier village from 1827, in American English.^(Etymonline) The legal settlement of property, as on marriage or divorce, is from the 1670s,^(Etymonline) the payment of an account by 1729,^(Etymonline) and the decision of a question or dispute by 1777.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) Subsidence of a building is from the late 18th century.^(SOED 2002) In the late 19th century Christian socialists used it for a house in a poor district where middle-class reformers lived among the working class, hence ''settlement house''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1620s – clarifying, steadying.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1648 – fixing in place.^(OED 1989)^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1662 – legal residence in a parish.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1670s – a settlement of property.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1690s – a colony.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1729 – payment of an account.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1777 – the decision of a dispute.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1827 – a frontier village.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An official [[agreement]] that ends a dispute.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A place where people have come to live, especially one newly built; a small village.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # The process of people settling in a new place.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # The payment of money owed.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(law)'' The arrangement by which property is given to someone, or the property itself.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # The slow sinking of a building or the ground under it.^(SOED 2002)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[nonsettlement]]

+ * [[outsettlement]]

+ * [[presettlement]]

+ * [[resettlement]]

+ * [[unsettlement]]

+ * [[settlement house]]

+ * [[viatical settlement]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[settler]]

+ * [[settle]]

+ * [[sit]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}