member definition

English member definition

Etymology 1

From Middle English membre, from Old French membre, from Latin membrum (“limb, body part”), from Proto-Italic *memzrom, from Proto-Indo-European *mḗms, *mēms-rom (“flesh”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌼𐌶 (mimz, “meat, flesh”), Crimean Gothic menus.

Coexists with native Middle English lim, limb (“member, limb, joint”) (from Old English lim (“limb, joint, main branch”)), and displaced Middle English lith (“limb, joint, member”) (from Old English liþ (“limb, member, join, tip”)).

Alternative forms

• membre (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛmbə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛmbɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mem‧ber
• Rhymes: -ɛmbə(ɹ)

Noun

member (plural members)

1. One who officially belongs to a group.
   • 2014 January 14, Roberta Rogow, The Problem of the Surly Servant‎^[1], →ISBN, page 109:

     “Were it not for the fancy French and Latin in it, I'd have swore it was the sort of thing I do not print as a rule, but being as how the order was from one of the members upstairs...”

2. A part of a whole.

   The I-beams were to become structural members of a pedestrian bridge.

   • 1979, Kenneth J. Englund, "The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian (Carbonfierous) Systems in the United States - Virginia", Page C-14, in Geological Survey Professional Paper, Volume 1110

     The member intertongues and grades laterally with the lower sandstone member of the Pocahontas Formation of Early Pennslyvanian age

3. Part of an animal capable of performing a distinct office; an organ; a limb.

   Synonyms: limb, lith

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Romans 12:4:

     For as we haue many members in one body, and all members haue not the same office:

4. (euphemistic) The penis.

   Synonyms: pintle, tarse

5. (logic) One of the propositions making up a syllogism.

   Synonyms: premise, premiss

6. (set theory) An element of a set.

   Synonym: element

7. (Australia, law) the judge or adjudicator in a consumer court.
8. A part of a discourse or of a period, sentence, or verse; a clause.
9. (mathematics) Either of the two parts of an algebraic equation, connected by the equality sign.
10. (computing) A file stored within an archive file.

    The zip file holding the source code of this application has 245 members.

11. (object-oriented programming) A function or piece of data associated with each separate instance of a class.
12. (Malaysia, slang) friend

Hyponyms

• crewmember
• family member
• male member
• party member

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: メンバー (menbā)

Translations

Etymology 2

See remember.

Alternative forms

• 'member

Verb

member (third-person singular simple present members, present participle membering, simple past and past participle membered)

1. (obsolete outside dialects) To remember.
2. (obsolete) To cause to remember; to mention.

Anagrams

• membre

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Scots member definition

Etymology

Middle English, via Old French from Latin membrum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛmbər]

Noun

member (plural members)

1. member