Etymograph

English

issue

Issue comes from Old French issue ‘an exit, a way out’, past participle of issir ‘to exit’, from Latin exeō ‘go out’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEeō1‘go’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexeō1‘go out’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400issir1‘to exit’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400issue1‘an exit’feminine past participle of issir
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500issue1‘an outwards flow or discharge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588issue1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English issue
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “And let his foes like flockes of feareful Roes,…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEeōWiktionary, English issue‘go’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexeōWiktionary, English issue‘go out’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400issirWiktionary, English issue‘to exit’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400issueWiktionary, English issue‘an exit’feminine past participle of issir
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500issueWiktionary, English issue‘an outwards flow or discharge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588issueWiktionary, English issue. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “And let his foes like flockes of feareful Roes,…”

The story

The legal meaning originated from the concept of "the end or result of pleadings in a suit (by presenting the point to be determined by trial)," leading to the sense of "the controversy over facts in a trial" (early 14th century, Anglo-French). This later extended to mean "a point of contention between two parties" (early 15th century) and more generally, "an important point to be decided" (1836). Consequently, the verbal phrase take issue with emerged in 1797 (preceded by join issue in the 1690s), meaning "to adopt an affirmative or negative stance in a dispute with another." The expression to have issues, meaning "to have unresolved conflicts," dates to 1990.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin eō ‘go’

initial, transition, ambitious, ambition, ambient, trance, obituary, transient, eyre, sedition, transitive, ambiance, transitory, seditious, ambit, obit, praetorian, praetor, 23 more

through Latin exeō ‘go out, exit’

exit, 7 more

Today it means

noun A movement of soldiers towards an enemy, a sortie.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “issue”. 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 eō / issue

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