Update

How to spell update

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce update

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does update mean?

1. verbTo bring something up to the most recent or accurate state by adding new information.
2. nounA piece of new or revised information, or a corrected version of something.

Update in a sentence

• verb

  Please update the spreadsheet before the meeting begins.

• noun

  The manager sent a brief update on the project's progress.

• verb

  The software will update automatically overnight.

• noun

  The latest update fixed several bugs in the app.

Where does update come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Update is a modern compound, formed in English by joining the everyday adverb 'up' to the verb 'date', meaning to mark or fix a point in time. The 'date' element traces back to the Latin phrase 'data', literally 'given', which appeared at the head of Roman letters in the formula 'data Romae', meaning 'given at Rome' on such and such a day; this is the same root that gave us the modern noun for a calendar day. The combination 'up to date' as a phrase meaning current was already common in the nineteenth century before the single verb 'update' was coined. The compressed verb 'update' itself only appeared in the early twentieth century, gaining real momentum in the 1940s and 1950s in business and computing contexts where records constantly needed refreshing. Because it is a transparent English compound rather than a borrowing, its spelling is regular, and the only mild trap is remembering it is written as one solid word rather than two.

How the word is built

• up- (prefix meaning toward a more current state)
• date (from Latin data, the giving or noting of a time)