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Origin and history of changing

changing(n.)

early 13c., "alteration;" mid-14c., "action of substituting one thing for another;" verbal noun from change (v.). Changing-room is by 1852, originally for miners, gunpowder-factory workers, etc.

[A]lso not any fires or smoking are to be allowed ; and, under no pretense whatsoever, is any lucifer match to be permitted on board ; and, to guard against the infringement of this order, the clothes with pockets in them are to be taken off in changing room, or examined before beginning the work. [from British navy regulations for loading and storing gunpowder, Office of Ordnance, June 5, 1852]

also from early 13c.

Entries linking to changing

change(v.)

c. 1200, chaungen, "to alter, make different, change" (transitive); early 13c. as "to substitute one for another;" mid-13c. as "to make (something) other than what it was, cause to turn or pass from one state to another;" from late 13c. as "to become different, be altered" (intransitive), from Old French changier "to change, alter; exchange, switch," from Late Latin cambiare "to barter, exchange," extended form of Latin cambire "to exchange, barter."

This is held to be of Celtic origin, from PIE root *kemb- "to bend, crook" (with a sense evolution perhaps from "to turn" to "to change," to "to barter"); cognate with Old Irish camm "crooked, curved;" Middle Irish cimb "tribute," cimbid "prisoner;" see cant (n.2).

From c. 1300 as "undergo alteration, become different." In part an abbreviation of exchange. From late 14c. especially as "to give an equivalent for in smaller parts of the same kind" (money). The meaning "to take off clothes and put on other ones" is from late 15c. Related: Changed; changing. To change (one's) mind is from 1590s.

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    early 13c., chargen, "to load, put a burden on or in; fill with something to be retained," from Old French chargier "to load, burden, weigh down," from Late Latin carricare "to load a wagon or cart," from Latin carrus "two-wheeled wagon" (see car). The senses of "entrust," "comma

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