invention

English

Etymology

From Middle English invencion, invencioun, from Latin inventiō either directly or via Middle French invencion, from Latin invenīre (“to discover, find, invent”), from in- (“in-: in, into”) + venīre (“to come”). Doublet of inventio. Equivalent to invent +‎ -ion.

Displaced native Old English orþanc.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvɛnʃən/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

Noun

invention (countable and uncountable, plural inventions)

1. Something invented.

   My new invention will let you alphabetize your matchbook collection in half the usual time.

   (here signifying a process or mechanism not previously devised)

   I'm afraid there was no burglar. It was all the housekeeper's invention.

   (here signifying a fiction created for a particular purpose)

   • 1944 November 28, Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:

     Warren Sheffield is telephoning Rose long distance at half past six. Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention.

   • 2013 October 5, “The widening gyre”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8856:

     British inventions have done more to influence the shape of the modern world than those of any other country. Many—football, the steam engine and Worcestershire sauce, to take a random selection—have spread pleasure, goodwill and prosperity. Others—the Maxim gun, the Shrapnel shell and jellied eels—have not.

2. The act of inventing.

   The invention of the printing press was probably the most significant innovation of the medieval ages.

   • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

     Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, […] .

3. The capacity to invent.

   It took quite a bit of invention to come up with a plan, but we did it.

4. (music) A small, self-contained composition, particularly those in J.S. Bach’s Two- and Three-part Inventions.

   I particularly like the inventions in C-minor.

   • 1880, George Grove (editor and entry author), A Dictionary of Music and Musicians II, London: Macmillan & Co., page 15, Invention:

     INVENTION. A term used by J. S. Bach, and probably by him only, for small pianoforte pieces — 15 in 2 parts and 15 in 3 parts — each developing a single idea, and in some measure answering to the Impromptu of a later day.

5. (archaic) The act of discovering or finding; the act of finding out; discovery.

   That judicial method which serveth best for the invention of truth.

Synonyms

• discovery

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “invention”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin inventiōnem, from invenio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.vɑ̃.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

invention f (plural inventions)

1. invention

Derived terms

• la nécessité est la mère de l’invention

Related terms

• inventer
• inventeur

Further reading

• “invention”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.