English
modify
Modify comes from Latin modificare ‘to limit, control, regulate, deponent’, and goes back to modificari ‘to measure off, set bound to, moderate’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmodificari1‘to measure off, set bound to, moderate’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmodificare1‘to limit, control, regulate, deponent’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600modifier1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500modifien1
- Englishearliest quotation 1977modify1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English modify
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1977, Linda R. Waugh: “There is inherently no ordering to the modification and…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmodificariWiktionary, English modify‘to measure off, set bound to, moderate’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmodificareWiktionary, English modify‘to limit, control, regulate, deponent’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600modifierWiktionary, English modify
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500modifienWiktionary, English modify
- Englishearliest quotation 1977modifyWiktionary, English modify. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1977, Linda R. Waugh: “There is inherently no ordering to the modification and…”
A compound of modus ‘measure’ + facere ‘to make’
Proto-Indo-European *med- ‘to measure’
Proto-Indo-European *mod-ós ‘measure’
Proto-Italic *modos
Latin modus ‘measure’
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-
Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti
Proto-Italic *θakjō
Proto-Italic *fakjō ‘to make’
Latin faciō ‘to make’
Every English word from Latin modificari
Today it means
verb To change part of.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “modify”. 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 modificari / modify