change
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: chānj
ipa: /t͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -eɪndʒ
Forms: form: changes
form: changing
form: changed
form: changed
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: change
form: change
form: changed
form: change
form: changest
form: changed
form: changedst
form: changes
form: changeth
form: changed
form: change
form: changed
form: change
form: changed
form: change
form: -
form: changing
form: changed
Etymology: From Middle English changen, chaungen, from Old French changier, from Late Latin cambiāre, from Latin cambīre (“to exchange, barter”), derived from the noun cambium (“change”) (whence was loaned the English doublet cambium), from Gaulish cambion, earlier *kambyom (“change”), related to Proto-Celtic *kambos (“twisted, crooked”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱh₂(e)mbos, *(s)kh₂(e)mbos (“crooked”). More at skimp, scam; see also Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em-.
Cognate with Italian cambiare, Portuguese cambiar, Romanian schimba, Sicilian canciari, Spanish cambiar. Used in English since the 13th century. Displaced Middle English wenden, from wendan (“to turn, change”) (whence wend).
The noun is from Middle English change, chaunge, from Old French change, from the verb changier. See also exchange. Possibly related from the same source is Old English gombe.
Senses: examples: text: The tadpole changed into a frog.
text: Stock prices are constantly changing.
glosses: To become something different.
examples: text: Lo I the man, whoſe Muſe whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforſt a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets ſterne to chaunge mine oaten reeds,
And ſinge of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds[…]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 1:
text: KORRIS: They shunned you. Cursed you. Called you vile names, and you knew not why. Even now do you know why you are driven? Why you cannot relent—or repent—or confess—or abstain? How could you know? There have been no other Klingons to lead you to that knowledge.
WORF: Yes—yes—those feelings are still a part of me, but I control them. They do not rule me.
KORRIS: Yes, to fit in, the humans demand you change the one thing that you cannot change. But because you cannot—you do. That too is the mark of the warrior.
ref: 1988 March 21, Heart of Glory (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:
text: Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.
ref: 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:
text: Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.[…]A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.
ref: 2013 July–August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:
text: The fairy changed the frog into a prince.
text: I had to change the wording of the ad so it would fit.
glosses: To make something into something else.
examples: text: Ask the janitor to come and change the lightbulb.
text: After a brisk walk, I washed up and changed my shirt.
text: Towards the end of the nineteenth century, boys who had pretended soldiers down through the centuries, now changed their pikes and swords for toy pistols.
ref: 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 193:
glosses: To replace.
examples: text: You can't go into the dressing room while she’s changing.
text: The clowns changed into their costumes before the circus started.
glosses: To replace one's clothing.
examples: text: It’s your turn to change the baby.
glosses: To replace the clothing of (the one wearing it), especially to put a clean diaper on (someone).
examples: text: After stopping at these stations, my train has become busy. Returning day-trippers make up a goodly number, along with young people heading for a night out in Bristol, which is where I change once again.
ref: 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 66:
glosses: To transfer to another vehicle (train, bus, etc.)
examples: text: At the first sight / they have changed eyes. (exchanged looks)
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: I would give any thing to change a word or two with this person.
ref: 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2)
glosses: To exchange.
examples: text: to change a horse
glosses: To change hand while riding (a horse).
Synonyms: sense: to make something different
word: alter
sense: to make something different
word: modify
sense: to make something different
word: make another
sense: to make something into something different
word: transform
Derived terms: a leopard cannot change its spots
all change
alter or change
antichange
baby changing station
changeable
change by reversal
change course
change direction
change down
changeful
change hands
change horses in mid-stream
change horses in midstream
change integrity
change like seasons
change like the seasons
changeling
change one's battery
change oneself
change one's mind
change one's spots
change one's story
change one's tune
change one's ways
change out
change over
change place
change places
change sides
change someone's mind
change someone's tune
change tack
change the channel
change the game
change the leg
change the record
change the subject
change up
changing of the guard
changing pad
changing room
changing table
chop and change
chopping and changing
climate-changing
don't change a winning team
everchanging
ever-changing
get changed
life-changing
money changing
never change a running system
overchange
presto change-o
rechange
stem-changing verb
the more things change, the more they stay the same
transchange
unchange
Related terms: exchange