change

From Middle English changen, chaungen, borrowed from Old French chaunger, from Old French changier, from Late Latin cambiāre, from Latin cambīre, present active infinitive of cambiō (“exchange, barter”), from Gaulish cambion, *kambyom (“change”), from Proto-Celtic *kambos (“twisted, crooked”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱambos, *(s)kambos (“crooked”). Cognate with Italian cambiare, Portuguese cambiar, Romanian schimba, Spanish cambiar. Used in English since the 13th century. Displaced native Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan (“to turn, change”) (whence English wend).

The noun is from Middle English change, chaunge, from Anglo-Norman chaunge, from Old French change, from the verb changier. See also exchange. Possibly related from the same source is Old English gombe.

• enPR: chānj, IPA^(key): /tʃeɪndʒ/

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• Rhymes: -eɪndʒ

change (third-person singular simple present changes, present participle changing, simple past and past participle changed)

1. (intransitive) To become something different.

   The tadpole changed into a frog.   Stock prices are constantly changing.

2. (transitive, ergative) To make something into something else.
   • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

     Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.

   • 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

     Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. […] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

   The fairy changed the frog into a prince.   I had to change the wording of the ad so it would fit.

3. (transitive) To replace.

   Ask the janitor to come and change the lightbulb.   After a brisk walk, I washed up and changed my shirt.

4. (intransitive) To replace one's clothing.

   You can't go into the dressing room while she's changing.   The clowns changed into their costumes before the circus started.

5. (transitive) To replace the clothing of (the one wearing it).

   It's your turn to change the baby.

6. (intransitive) To transfer to another vehicle (train, bus, etc.)
7. (archaic) To exchange.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, act 1 scene 2

     At the first sight / they have changed eyes. (exchanged looks)

   • 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):

     I would give any thing to change a word or two with this person.

8. (transitive) To change hand while riding (a horse).

   to change a horse

• (to make something different): alter, modify
• (to make something into something different): transform

• exchange

change (countable and uncountable, plural changes)

Loose change

1. (countable, uncountable) The process of becoming different.
   • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

     Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.

   The product is undergoing a change in order to improve it.

2. (uncountable) Small denominations of money given in exchange for a larger denomination.

   Can I get change for this $100 bill please?

3. (countable) A replacement, e.g. a change of clothes
   • 2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2 - 2 Arsenal”, in BBC‎:

     After beating champions Chelsea 3-1 on Boxing Day, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger made eight changes to his starting XI in an effort to freshen things up, with games against Birmingham and Manchester City to come in the next seven days.

4. (uncountable) Money given back when a customer hands over more than the exact price of an item.

   A customer who pays with a 10-pound note for a £9 item receives one pound in change.

5. (uncountable) Coins (as opposed to paper money).

   Do you have any change on you? I need to make a phone call.

6. (countable) A transfer between vehicles.

   The train journey from Bristol to Nottingham includes a change at Birmingham.

7. (baseball) A change-up pitch.
8. (campanology) Any order in which a number of bells are struck, other than that of the diatonic scale.
   • Holder

     Four bells admit twenty-four changes in ringing.

9. (dated) A place where merchants and others meet to transact business; an exchange.
10. (Scotland, dated) A public house; an alehouse.
    • Burt

      They call an alehouse a change.

• Adjectives often applied to "change": big, small, major, minor, dramatic, drastic, rapid, slow, gradual, radical, evolutionary, revolutionary, abrupt, sudden, unexpected, incremental, social, economic, organizational, technological, personal, cultural, political, technical, environmental, institutional, educational, genetic, physical, chemical, industrial, geological, global, local, good, bad, positive, negative, significant, important, structural, strategic, tactical.

• (the process of becoming different): transition, transformation

• (transfer): interchange

• modification
• mutation
• evolution
• reorganization

• “change” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

Deverbal from changer (corresponding to Old French change). Compare Medieval and Late Latin cambium.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɑ̃ʒ/

change m (plural changes)

1. exchange

change

1. first-person singular present indicative of changer
2. third-person singular present indicative of changer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of changer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of changer
5. second-person singular imperative of changer

• changer
• changeur

• “change” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• chànge (Guernsey)

Borrowed from French change and English change.

change m (plural changes)

1. (Jersey) change
2. (Jersey, money) exchange rate

• cange (Anglo-Norman)

Deverbal of changier.

change m (oblique plural changes, nominative singular changes, nominative plural change)

1. change (difference between one state and another)
2. exchange
   • late 12th century, anonymous, La Folie de Tristan d'Oxford, page 368 (of the Champion Classiques edition of Le Roman de Tristan, →ISBN, line 289:

     Fesum bargaine, fesum change

     Let's make a bargain, let's make an exchange

• English: change (borrowed)
• French: change