Q: In Josephine Tey’s 1950 novel To Love and Be Wise, a character makes a pun on the dual meanings of “accommodate” (to oblige and to provide lodging). I’m interested in the history behind this, if you don’t mind accommodating my request.
A: The conversation between Miss Searle and Detective Inspector Alan Grant in which the wordplay occurs showcases the adjective “accommodating” and the noun “accommodation”:
“You are very accommodating for a policeman,” she remarked.
“Criminals don’t find us that way,” he said.
“I thought providing accommodation for criminals was the end and object of Scotland Yard.”
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the verb “accommodate” ultimately derives from the Classical Latin accommodare (to fit on, attach, make agree, make suitable, adapt).
However, the OED explains that some of the English meanings, including the obliging and lodging connotations, were influenced by Middle French.
When “accommodate” first entered the English language in the early 16th century, it meant “to apply, attribute, or ascribe (especially words) to a person,” a sense that is now obsolete.
The earliest citation in the Oxford dictionary, which has been edited and expanded, is from The Boke Named the Gouernour (1531) by Thomas Elyot, an English scholar and diplomat.
In discussing the Latin expression nosce te ipsum (“know thyself”), Elyot mentions that it “is of old writers supposed for to be first spoken by Chilo [Chilon of Sparta] or some other of the seven ancient Greeks [the Seven Sages of Greece],” while “Others do accommodate it to Apollo.”
The OED notes that the English verb quickly took on the sense of “to adapt oneself to another thing or person.” The first example cited is from a 1538 Latin dictionary written by Elyot:
“Scio vti foro, I know what I have to do, also I can accommodate myself to other men’s manners, & to the conditions of the time and place present.” (A literal translation of the Latin expression would be “I know how to use the forum.”)
In the late 16th century, the verb acquired its lodging sense, defined by the OED as “to provide lodging for (a person), especially as a guest; to house; (also) to receive as an inmate.”
The dictionary’s first example, which has been edited and expanded, is from a letter dated May 29, 1592, from Florence, Italy, by Henry Wotton, a British author and diplomat:
“Touching my private self, I continue in the house of Signor Bacchio Boni, in Via Larga, where I am reasonably well accommodated, but for my ten crowns a month” (The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, 1907, by Logan Pearsall Smith).
In the early 17th century, the verb took on its obliging sense, defined by the OED as “to oblige, assist, or confer a favor on (a person); to be suitable or convenient for.”
The earliest citation in the dictionary is from A General History of the Netherlands (1608), Edward Grimeston’s translation of a French work by Jean-François le Petit:
“Laying before them the great benefits which the empire had received from the king of Spain, and the house of Burgundy; wherefore it was reciprocally bound to serve and accommodate him therein.”
In the early 17th century, the noun “accommodation” appeared in its lodging sense, defined by the OED as “room and provision for the reception of people.”
The first citation in the dictionary, which has been expanded here, is from Shakespeare’s Othello, believed to have been written around 1603:
“I crave fit disposition for my wife, / Due reverence of place and exhibition, / Which such accommodation and resort [suitable company] / As levels with her breeding.”
The adjective “accommodating” emerged in the mid-17th century, according to the OED, describing something “that accommodates (in various senses), especially obliging, pliant, conciliatory; easy to deal with.”
The first obliging citation is from a treatise on marriage: “An accommodating, pliable, and acceptable spirit to traffic with others” (Matrimoniall Honovr, 1642, by the Anglican cleric Daniel Rogers).
Finally, the most recent citation from the Oxford dictionary for the verb “accommodate” used in its obliging sense is from Two in Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing (2006) by Paul C. Rosenblatt:
“An important part of getting along with someone in a long-term, intimate relationship is learning how to accommodate and tolerate.”
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