Install Comes From Putting Someone in a Stall
To install is to put equipment in place or to put someone into office. Both senses trace back to a seat in a church choir.
To install is to place something where it will work: a boiler, a program, a new dean. The medieval original is the ceremony of seating a canon in his *stall* in the choir. The word for putting a person in a seat became the word for putting a machine in a house.
- To fit equipment in place. *Install the boiler.*
- To put software on a device. *Install the app.*
- To place someone in office. *She was installed as chancellor.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | install | Install it here. |
| Past | installed | Newly installed. |
| Noun | installation | A heating installation. |
| Person | installer | A qualified installer. |
| Variant | instal | Instal (older British spelling). |
How it is used in a sentence
- The meter was installed last week.Physical fitting.
- Install the update before restarting.Software.
- He was installed as bishop in the cathedral.The original ceremonial sense.
Related words
- Installation — the act, the equipment, or a work of art in a space
- Uninstall — remove software cleanly
- Instalment — one payment of several, from the same stall root
- Stall — the seat, the market stand, and the engine failure, all related distantly
- Fit — the plainer British word for installing
From Medieval Latin *installare*, from *in* and *stallum*, a stall or seat, borrowed from a Germanic word. The same root gives *stable* in the sense of a horse's building.
Install or instal?
Install is standard everywhere now. Instal with one l appears in older British books.
Instalment or installment?
Instalment in British English, installment in American. Both mean one payment in a series, or one episode of a serial.