audit | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

8 entries found.

early 15c., "official examination of accounts," from Latin auditus "a hearing, a listening," past participle of audire "to hear" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive"). Official examination of accounts originally was an oral procedure. Also formerly used in a sense "official audience, judicial hearing or examination" (1590s).

audit (v.)

mid-15c., "examine and verify (accounts)," from audit (n.). Meaning "attend (a course, etc.) without intending to earn credit by doing course-work" is from 1933. Related: Audited; auditing.

*au-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to perceive."

It forms all or part of: aesthete; aesthetic; anesthesia; audible; audience; audio; audio-; audit; audition; auditor; auditorium; auditory; hyperaesthesia; kinesthetic; oyer; oyez; obedient; obey; paraesthesia; synaesthesia.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit avih, Avestan avish "openly, evidently;" Greek aisthanesthai "to feel;" Latin audire "to hear;" Old Church Slavonic javiti "to reveal."

audition (n.)

1590s, "power of hearing;" 1650s, "act of hearing, a listening," from French audicion "hearing (in a court of law)" and directly from Latin auditionem (nominative auditio) "a hearing, listening to," noun of action from past-participle stem of audire "to hear" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive"). Meaning "trial for a performer" first recorded 1881.

audition (v.)

1935 (transitive) "give (an applicant for a performance part) a trial or test," from audition (n.). Intransitive sense "try out for a performance part" is from 1938. Related: Auditioned; auditioning.

auditor (n.)

early 14c., "official who receives and examines accounts;" late 14c., "a hearer, one who listens," from Anglo-French auditour (Old French oieor "listener, court clerk," 13c.; Modern French auditeur), from Latin auditor "a hearer, a pupil, scholar, disciple," in Medieval Latin "a judge, examiner of accounts," from auditus, past participle of audire "to hear" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive"). The process of receiving and examining accounts formerly was done, and vouched for, orally. Related: Auditorial.

auditory (adj.)

1570s, from Latin auditorius "pertaining to hearing," from auditor "hearer," from audire "to hear" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive"). The word was used in Middle English as a noun, "assembly of hearers, audience" (late 14c.), from Latin auditorium.

auditorium (n.)

"part of a public building where people gather to hear speeches, etc.," 1727, from Latin auditorium "a lecture-room," literally "place where something is heard," in Medieval Latin especially "a reception room in a monastery," noun use of neuter of auditorius (adj.) "of or for hearing," from auditus, past participle of audire "to hear" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive"); also see -ory. Earlier in English in the same sense was auditory (late 14c.), and Latin auditorium was glossed in Old English by spræchus ("speech-house").

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