Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Unit in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels unit as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Unit

[Abbrev. from unity.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordunit
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[Abbrev. from unity.]
Selected historical definitionA single thing or person.
Signed record IDwebster1913-unit-noun-9021d0de3bb4
Source locatorCIDE.U, paragraph 2096; Gutenberg eBook 669
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 669Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "unit" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[Abbrev. from unity.]" The selected historical definition says: "A single thing or person."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

More released U records

Every card owns a different source record and historical sense.

verb

Understand

[OE. understanden, AS. understandan, literally, to stand under; cf. AS. forstandan to understand, G. verstehen. The development of sense is not clear. See Under, and Stand.]

Webster 1913 exact recordnoun

Union

[F., from L. unio oneness, union, a single large pearl, a kind of onion, fr. unus one. See One, and cf. Onion, Unit.]

Webster 1913 exact recordadjective

Unique

[F. unique; cf. It. unico; from L. unicus, from unus one. See One.]

Webster 1913 exact recordadjective

Ultimate

[LL. ultimatus last, extreme, fr. L. ultimare to come to an end, fr. ultimus the farthest, last, superl. from the same source as ulterior. See Ulterior, and cf. Ultimatum.]

Webster 1913 exact record

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