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© 2001 - 2026 Douglas Harper
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Origin and history of diary

diary(n.)

1580s, "an account of daily events, a journal kept by one person of his or her experiences and observations," from Latin diarium "daily allowance," later "a journal," neuter of diarius "daily," from dies "day" (from PIE root *dyeu- "to shine," in derivatives "sky, heaven, god"); also see -ary.

Sense of "a book with blank leaves or dated pages meant for keeping a daily record of events" is from c. 1600. Related: Diarial; diarian.

diary

also from 1580s

Entries linking to diary

diarist(n.)

"one who keeps a diary," 1805; see diary + -ist. In the same sense diarian is attested from 1800.

diarize(v.)

"to record in a diary," 1803 (implied in diarized); see diary + -ize. Related: Diarizing.

  • -ary
  • *dyeu-
  • See All Related Words (4)
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More to explore

journal
mid-14c., "book of church services," from Anglo-French jurnal, from Old French jornel, "a day; time; a day's travel or work" (12c., Modern French journal), properly "that which takes place daily," noun use of adjective meaning "daily, of the day," from Late Latin diurnalis "daily
whitey
[diary of Lieut. S. Millett Thompson, 13th New Hampshire Volunteer regiment, U.S....Army, Jan. 25, 1864; diary published 1888 by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.]...
commentary
early 15c., "series or collection of comments," from Medieval Latin commentarius "notebook, annotation; diary, memoir," noun...
Iowa
John Quincy Adams, in his diary entries on the House of Representatives debate on the territorial bill in 1838, writes it...
tycoon
Transferred meaning "important person" is attested from 1861, in reference to U.S. president Abraham Lincoln (in the diary...
treble
Marryat, "A Diary in America," 1839]...
vest
[Pepys, diary, Oct. 8, 1666] Louis XIV of France is said to have mocked the effort by putting his footmen in such vests....
blog
"online journal," 1998, short for weblog (which is attested from 1993 but in the sense "file containing a detailed record of each request received by a web server"), from (World Wide) Web (n.) + log (n.2). Joe Bloggs (c. 1969) was British slang for "any hypothetical person" (comp
writing
Old English writing "action of forming letters and characters," verbal noun from write (v.). From c. 1200 as "text; body of poetry, narrative, etc. in written form; written material." From c. 1300 as "a particular text;" mid-14c. as "act of composing a written text." From late 14
again
late Old English agan, from earlier ongean (prep.) "toward; opposite, against, contrary to; in exchange for," as an adverb "in the opposite direction, back, to or toward a former place or position," from on "on" (see on (prep.) and compare a- (1)) + -gegn "against, toward." This

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Dictionary entries near diary
  • diarize
  • diarrhea
  • diarrheal
  • diarrhetic
  • diarrhoea
  • diary
  • diaspora
  • diastase
  • diastole
  • diatessaron
  • diatom
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