English
competency
Competency comes from Late Latin competentia ‘agreement, symmetry, correspondence’, and goes back to Latin competēns.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompetēns1‘meeting, agreeing’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcompetentia2‘agreement, symmetry, correspondence’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598competency2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin competentia
- 2 Wiktionary, English competency
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompetēnsWiktionary, Latin competentia‘meeting, agreeing’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcompetentiaWiktionary, English competency‘agreement, symmetry, correspondence’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598competencyWiktionary, English competency. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives…”
Linked words
through Latin competēns ‘meeting, agreeing’
Today it means
noun The ability to perform some task; competence.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “competency”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin competentia. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin competēns / competency