date

pronunciation

How to pronounce date in British English: UK [deɪt] word uk audio image

How to pronounce date in American English: US [deɪt] word us audio image

Noun:

the specified day of the month
a particular day specified as the time something will happen
a meeting arranged in advance
a particular but unspecified point in time
the present
a participant in a date
the particular day, month, or year (usually according to the Gregorian calendar) that an event occurred
sweet edible fruit of the date palm with a single long woody seed
Verb:

go on a date with
stamp with a date
assign a date to; determine the (probable) date of
date regularly; have a steady relationship with
provide with a dateline; mark with a date

Word Origin

date: date: Date ‘time of an event’ and date ‘fruit’ are distinct words in English, and perhaps unexpectedly the latter [13] entered the language a century before the former. It came via Old French date and Latin dactylus from Greek dáktulos, which originally meant literally ‘finger’ or ‘toe’. The term was originally applied from the supposed resemblance of a date to a little brown finger or toe. Date ‘time’ [14] was acquired from Old French date, a descendant of medieval Latin data, which represented a nominal use of the feminine form of Latin datus, the past participle of the verb dare ‘give’.It originated in such phrases as data Romae ‘given at Rome’, the ancient Roman way of dating letters. (Data ‘information’ [17], on the other hand, is the plural of the neuter form of the past participle, datum.) Among the wide range of other English words descended from Latin dare (which can be traced back ultimately to an Indo- European base *dō-) are antidote [15] (etymologically ‘what is given against something’), condone [19], dado [17] (a borrowing from Italian, ‘cube’), dative [15], donation [15], dice, dowry and endow (both ultimately from Latin dōs ‘dowry’, a relative of dare), edit, and pardon [13].=> pterodactyl; antidote, condone, data, dative, dice, donation, edit, endow, pardon

date (n.1): "time," early 14c., from Old French date (13c.) "date, day; time," from Medieval Latin data, noun use of fem. singular of Latin datus "given," past participle of dare "to give, grant, offer," from PIE root *do- "to give" (cognates: Sanskrit dadati "gives," danam "offering, present;" Old Persian dadatuv "let him give," Old Church Slavonic dati "give," dani "tribute;" Latin donum "gift;" Greek didomi, didonai, "to give, offer," doron "gift;" Lithuanian duonis "gift," Old Irish dan "gift, endowment, talent," Welsh dawn "gift"). The Roman convention of closing every article of correspondence by writing "given" and the day and month -- meaning perhaps "given to messenger" -- led to data becoming a term for "the time (and place) stated." (a Roman letter would include something along the lines of datum Romae pridie Kalendas Maias -- "given at Rome on the last day of April."

date (n.3): "liaison," 1885, gradually evolving from date (n.1) in its general sense of "appointment;" romantic sense by 1890s. Meaning "person one has a date with" is from 1925.

date (n.2): the fruit, late 13c., from Old French date, from Old Provençal datil, from Latin dactylus, from Greek daktylos "date," originally "finger, toe;" so called because of fancied resemblance between oblong fruit of the date palm and human digits. Possibly from a Semitic source (compare Hebrew deqel, Aramaic diqla, Arabic daqal "date palm") and assimilated to the Greek word for "finger."

date (v.2): "have a romantic liaison;" 1902, from date (n.3). Related: Dated; dating.

date (v.1): "to mark (a document) with the date," late 14c., from date (n.1). Meaning "to assign to or indicate a date" (of an event) is from c. 1400. Meaning "to mark as old-fashioned" is from 1895. Related: Dated; dating.