Discover
verbTo find or learn something for the first time, or to reveal something previously hidden.
How to spell discover
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce discover
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does discover mean?
- verbTo find or learn something for the first time, or to reveal something previously hidden.
Discover in a sentence
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Engineers were keen to discover the cause of the recurring fault.
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Travellers often discover small restaurants that never appear in guidebooks.
Where does discover come from?
Language of origin: French
This word came into English in the 1300s from the Old French descovrir, which carried the literal sense of 'to uncover' or 'to take the lid off something'. That French verb descended from the Late Latin discooperire, built from the prefix dis-, meaning 'apart' or 'undo', and cooperire, meaning 'to cover up'. So at its heart 'discover' simply means to remove the covering and reveal what was hidden, and only later did it shift toward the modern idea of finding out or learning something for the first time. The everyday word 'cover' is the same Latin element living on inside it, which is a handy reminder that the spelling keeps a plain 'cover' after the prefix 'dis'. Through the 1500s and 1600s the word became firmly attached to exploration and to the revealing of new lands and facts.
How the word is built
- dis- (reversal, removal)
- cover (to cover, conceal)
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