Senior managing editor and logophile Andy Hollandbeck reveals the sometimes surprising roots of common English words and phrases. Remember: Etymology tells us where a word comes from, but not what it means today.
When you’re little, Santa Claus is always watching and judging, creatures are apt to take up residence under your bed, and the boogeyman hides behind every dark door. As adults, we cast off these childish fears, but they are replaced with something scarier and more real: the threat of a tax audit.
Back in the 15th century — when the first examples of audit began appearing in the written record — it meant approximately what it does today: an official examination of financial accounts. While today’s audits involve poring over paperwork, audits originally were spoken procedures; considering the literacy rate back then, this makes a lot of sense.
That auditory aspect explains how the audit got its name. The word traces back to auditus “a hearing, a listening,” the past participle of the Latin verb audire “to hear.”
The word has undergone some subtle shifts in meaning over the centuries. At the end of the 16th century, for example, there are written examples of audit being used to mean “an official visitation or official court hearing.” In the 20th century, some students would audit a college class — meaning they sit in and listen to the classroom lectures but do not participate or receive credit.
And if that class is large, it might occur in an auditorium, where the listeners might be classified as an audience.
You can see the etymological connections among these words — audit, auditory, auditorium, audience. They all trace back to that Latin audire “to hear.” Which might put you in mind of another etymological cousin: audio.
Audio is an interesting word because, until about 1934, it wasn’t a word at all, but a word-forming element, like intra- or proto-. It wasn’t until new electronic sound technologies started to become common that the relatively young (in English) element broke off and became its own word. Video came along at the same time specifically as a pairing with audio.
Today’s world runs on audio-video equipment — which is not to say that you should deduct your new home theater as a business expense … unless you’re a movie producer.
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Comments
The name of the German cars “Audi” also comes from “audere”. The owner of the factory was Mr. Horch. That is an imperative of the German word horchen (listen), translated to Latin it’s AUDI.