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Origin and history of codify

codify(v.)

"to reduce to a code or digest, to arrange or systematize," c. 1800 (Bentham), from code (n.) + -ify. Related: codified; codifying.

also from c. 1800

Entries linking to codify

code(n.)

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.

codification(n.)

"act or process of reducing to a code or system," 1817 (Bentham), noun of action from codify.

-ify

variant of verbal suffix -fy with connective -i-. Related: -ific; -ification.

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    Trends of codify

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    hyperbole
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    late 15c., perpendiculer, of a line, "lying at right angles to the horizon" (in astronomy, navigation, etc.), from an earlier adverb (late 14c.), "at right angles to the horizon," from Old French perpendiculer, from Late Latin perpendicularis "vertical, as a plumb line," from Lat
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    c. 1300, dismaien, "become or be alarmed, upset, or frightened; to confound, break down the courage of by danger or difficulty or fear of calamity, fill with despairing apprehension;" perhaps formed in Anglo-French or Middle English from dis-, here probably intensive (see dis-),

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