Comments on: Commute Was Not a Noun Until 1960 http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/06/04/commute-was-not-a-noun-until-1960/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:15:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Donald http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/06/04/commute-was-not-a-noun-until-1960/#comment-7582 Donald Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:19:29 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=922#comment-7582 From etymonline.com... c.1450, from L. commutare "to often change, to change altogether," from com- intensive prefix + mutare "to change" (see mutable). Sense of "make less severe" is 1633. Sense of "go back and forth to work" is 1889, from commutation ticket "season pass" (on a railroad, streetcar line, etc.), from commute in its sense of "to change one kind of payment into another" (1795), especially "to combine a number of payments into a single one;" commuter is from 1865; the noun commute is from 1960. Correct, it wasn't a noun, but it did have to do with traveling as early as 1889. Since I'm a math major, I have to wonder how early it was used to describe the mathematical property... From etymonline.com…
c.1450, from L. commutare “to often change, to change altogether,” from com- intensive prefix + mutare “to change” (see mutable). Sense of “make less severe” is 1633. Sense of “go back and forth to work” is 1889, from commutation ticket “season pass” (on a railroad, streetcar line, etc.), from commute in its sense of “to change one kind of payment into another” (1795), especially “to combine a number of payments into a single one;” commuter is from 1865; the noun commute is from 1960.

Correct, it wasn’t a noun, but it did have to do with traveling as early as 1889. Since I’m a math major, I have to wonder how early it was used to describe the mathematical property…

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