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historical dictionarymw-legend
Legend — Word History
- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
- DOI
- Not recorded
- SOURCE TYPE
- historical dictionary
- EXTERNAL RECORD
- OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
011
CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS
RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
RANK 206GRADE Asupports
A legend was “something to be read.”
The dubious-story sense came later than the Medieval Latin reading category.
*leǵ-
*leǵ- → legere → legendus → legenda → legende → legende → legend
Medieval Latin legendaDocuments legenda as things to be read and the later English sense development.
legend dossier ↗truth record ↗78UNVEILING
022
SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT
DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
opensupportsprobable
Why did appointed readings become unverifiable stories?
Association with saints’ lives and inherited narratives supplies the historical environment, but the semantic expansion was gradual rather than one datable pivot.
Etymology and sensesRecords the historical senses while leaving the exact cultural mechanism of the shift open.
resolvedsupportsestablished
Did legend originally mean a false story?
No. Medieval Latin legenda meant things to be read. The uncertainty or fictionality of a traditional story is a later development.
Etymology and sensesDocuments the reading category before the later unverifiable-story sense.
035
CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS
EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
EDGE 62supportsestablished
legend → legende
Present-Day English → Middle English · inheritance
- SOUND
- Final unstressed -e was lost and spelling stabilized as legend.
- MEANING
- Saintly reading matter expanded to inherited story, inscription, and explanatory key.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster editors
Etymology and sensesEDGE 63supportsestablished
legende → legende
Middle English → Anglo-French · borrowing
- SOUND
- Middle English adapted the Anglo-French form.
- MEANING
- The reading and saint’s-life senses continued.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster editors
Middle English and Anglo-French stagesEDGE 64supportsestablished
legende → legenda
Anglo-French → Latin · borrowing
- SOUND
- Anglo-French transmitted Medieval Latin legenda.
- MEANING
- Materials appointed for reading became a category of devotional narrative.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster editors
Medieval Latin legendaEDGE 65supportsestablished
legenda → legendus
Latin → Latin · inflection
- SOUND
- legenda is the feminine singular or neuter plural gerundive formation represented in medieval use.
- MEANING
- “Things to be read” becomes a lexical category.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Latin and medieval lexicography
legendaLiterally things to be read.
EDGE 66supportsestablished
legendus → legere
Latin → Latin · inflection
- SOUND
- legendus is the gerundive of legere.
- MEANING
- Obligation or appointment to read supplies the literal formation.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Latin lexicography
legendus / legere041
LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS
WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE
legendSOURCE-REPORTED
legend
English lexical record
OPEN WITNESS 18 ↗053
COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE
COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES
063
GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS
JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
stage 2supports
Medieval Latin Christendom
Explains Medieval Latin legenda as “things to be read,” especially narratives of saints, from Latin legere.
Word History: Etymology; Kids Word Origin · regionalstage 3supports
England
Dates the first known English use of legend to circa 1500.
Word History: First Known Use · regionalstage 4supports
Global storytelling and graphics
Documents current story, famous-person, inscription, caption, and map-key senses without assigning them one shared onset.
Definitions 1–2 and Kids Definition · global070
NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE
No non-genealogical context link currently cites this source.
081
WORD-FAMILY REUSE
DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE
5 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.