1794, from French utiliser, from Italian utilizzare, from utile "usable," from Latin utilis "usable," from uti "make use of, profit by, take advantage of" (see use (v.)).
Utilize is fast antiquating improve, in the sense of 'turn to account.' [Fitzedward Hall, "Modern English," 1873]
1640s, transitive, "cleanse from filth," a back-formation from scavenger (q.v.). The intransitive meaning "search through rubbish" for usable food or objects is suggested by 1880s; the transitive sense of "extract and collect anything usable from discarded material" is by 1922. Related: Scavenged; scavenging.
late 14c., "fact of being useful," from Old French utilite "usefulness" (13c., Modern French + utilité), earlier utilitet (12c.), from Latin utilitatem (nominative utilitas) "usefulness, serviceableness, profit," from utilis "usable," from uti "make use of, profit by, take advantage of" (see use (v.)). Meaning "a useful thing" is from late 15c. As a shortened form of public utility it is recorded from 1930.
c. 1300, "systematic compilation of laws," from Old French code "system of laws, law-book" (13c.), from Latin codex"systematic classification of statutory law," earlier caudex "book," literally "tree trunk," hence, book made up of wooden tablets covered with wax for writing. De Vaan traces this through Proto-Italic *kaud-ek- to PIE *kehu-d- "cleaved, separate," which he also sees as the root of cauda "tail" (see coda).
Meaning "cipher, system of signals and the rules which govern their use" (the sense in secret code) is from 1808. Code-name is from 1879 (in telegraphy). Meaning "system of expressing information and instructions in a form usable by a computer" is from 1946.
