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START / NODE 486Present-Day English1606–today
legislation
The making of laws or laws collectively; from French and Late Latin legislatio, a law-proposing or law-bearing formation.
“Legislation is older in English than legislate. The noun preserves Latin legis latio—law-bearing or law-proposing—and the English verb was later back-formed from this family.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishlegislation
the making of laws, laws collectively, or business before a legislative body
↑GO DEEPER
French · French, 14th century onwardlégislationlaw-making authority, action, or body of laws
- SOUND CHANGE
- English legislation borrows French législation with learned English stress and pronunciation.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The making of laws and the resulting body of laws remain central while legislative-business senses develop.
- SCHOLAR
- Etymonline · CNRTL editors
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — Merriam-Webster reports an earlier English horizon than Etymonline; the borrowing itself is secure.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Merriam-Webster reports 1606; Etymonline gives the 1650s.
3 CITATIONSLegislation — Definition and First Known UseFirst Known Use Legislation — Origin and historyHeadword etymology: from French législation CNRTL / TLFi: législation — Étymologie et histoireFrench and English chronology AUDIT CANONICAL EDGE 453 ↗
Reports a substantially earlier English first-known-use year of 1606.
ORIGINAL ↗Documents French transmission and the 1650s English report.
ORIGINAL ↗Documents the fourteenth-century French word and the pre-1655 English horizon reported by NED.
ORIGINAL ↗THE ASTERISK IS A PROMISE
RECONSTRUCTION IS
NOT INSCRIPTION.
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