issue - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English issue, from Old French issue (“an exit, a way out”), feminine past participle of issir (“to exit”), from Latin exeō (“go out, exit”), from prefix ex- (“out”) + eō (“go”).

The legal meaning originated from the concept of "the end or result of pleadings in a suit (by presenting the point to be determined by trial)," leading to the sense of "the controversy over facts in a trial" (early 14th century, Anglo-French). This later extended to mean "a point of contention between two parties" (early 15th century) and more generally, "an important point to be decided" (1836). Consequently, the verbal phrase take issue with emerged in 1797 (preceded by join issue in the 1690s), meaning "to adopt an affirmative or negative stance in a dispute with another." The expression to have issues, meaning "to have unresolved conflicts," dates to 1990.

issue (plural issues)

  1. The action or an instance of flowing or coming out, an outflow, particularly:
    1. (military, obsolete) A movement of soldiers towards an enemy, a sortie.
    2. (medicine) The outflow of a bodily fluid, particularly (now rare) in abnormal amounts.
      The technique minimizes the issue of blood from the incision.
  2. Someone or something that flows out or comes out, particularly:
    1. (medicine, now rare) The bodily fluid drained through a natural or artificial issue.
    2. (now usually historical or law) Offspring: one's natural child or children.
      He died intestate and without issue, so the extended family have all lawyered up.
      • 1936, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Section 1(2)”, in His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act 1936‎Wikisource, page 2:
        His Majesty, His issue, if any, and the descendants of that issue, shall not after His Majesty’s abdication have any right, title or interest in or to the succession to the Throne, and section one of the Act of Settlement shall be construed accordingly.
    3. (figuratively) Progeny: all one's lineal descendants.
      Although his own kingdom disappeared, his issue went on to rule a quarter of Europe.
    4. (figuratively, obsolete) A race of people considered as the descendants of some common ancestor.
    5. (now rare) The produce or income derived from farmland or rental properties.
      3. A conveys to B all right to the real property aforementioned for a term of _____ years, with all said real property's attendant issues, rents, and profits.
    6. (historical or rare law) Income derived from fines levied by a court or law-enforcement officer; the fines themselves.
    7. (obsolete) The entrails of a slaughtered animal.
    8. (rare and obsolete) Any action or deed performed by a person.
    9. (obsolete) Luck considered as the favor or disfavor of nature, the gods, or God.
    10. (publishing) A single edition of a newspaper or other periodical publication.
      Yeah, I just got the June issue of Wombatboy_._
    11. The entire set of some item printed and disseminated during a certain period, particularly (publishing) a single printing of a particular edition of a work when contrasted with other print runs.
      The May 1918 issue of US 24-cent stamps became famous when a printer's error inverted its depiction of an airmail plane.
    12. (figuratively, originally World War I military slang, usually with definite article) The entire set of something; all of something.
      The bloody sergeant snaffled our whole issue of booze, dammit.
    13. (finance) Any financial instrument issued by a company.
      The company's issues have included bonds, stocks, and other securities.
    14. The loan of a book etc. from a library to a patron; all such loans by a given library during a given period.
  3. The means or opportunity by which something flows or comes out, particularly:
    1. (obsolete) A sewer.
  4. The place where something flows or comes out, an outlet, particularly:
    1. (obsolete) An exit from a room or building.
    2. (now rare) A confluence: the mouth of a river; the outlet of a lake or other body of water.
  5. The action or an instance of sending something out, particularly:
    The issue of the directive from the treasury prompted the central bank's most recent issue of currency.
    1. (historical medicine) A small incision, tear, or artificial ulcer, used to drain fluid and usually held open with a pea or other small object.
      • 2005, James Harold Kirkup, chapter XXV, in The Evolution of Surgical Instruments, page 403:
        Issues and fontanels were supposed remedies for joint diseases, pulmonary tuberculosis, and other chronic conditions.
    2. The production or distribution of something for general use.
      Congress delegated the issue of US currency to the Federal Reserve in 1913.
    3. The distribution of something (particularly rations or standardized provisions) to someone or some group.
      The uniform was standard prison issue.
    4. (finance) The action or an instance of a company selling bonds, stock, or other securities.
      The company's stock issue diluted his ownership.
  6. Any question or situation to be resolved, particularly:
    Please stand by. We are having technical issues.
    1. (law) A point of law or fact in dispute or question in a legal action presented for resolution by the court.
      The issue before the court is whether participation in a group blog makes the plaintiff a public figure under the relevant statute.
    2. (figuratively) Anything in dispute, an area of disagreement whose resolution is being debated or decided.
      For chrissakes, John, don't make an issue out of it. Just sleep on the floor if you want.
    3. (rare and obsolete) (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) A difficult choice between two alternatives, a dilemma.
    4. (US, originally psychology, usually in the plural) A psychological or emotional difficulty, (now informal, figurative and usually euphemistic) any problem or concern considered as a vague and intractable difficulty.
      Hyponym: hang-up
      She has daddy issues, mommy issues, drug issues, money issues, trust issues, printer issues... I'm just sayin', girl's got issues.
  7. The action or an instance of concluding something, particularly:
    1. (obsolete) The end of any action or process.
    2. (obsolete) The end of any period of time.
  8. The end result of an event or events, any result or outcome, particularly:
    • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 176:
      The eternal happiness or misery of the departed saint depended on the issue of this contest between the powers of good and evil for the possession of his mortal remains.
    1. (now rare) The result of a discussion or negotiation, an agreement.
    2. (obsolete) The result of an investigation or consideration, a conclusion.
  9. (figurative, now rare) The action or an instance of feeling some emotion.
  10. (figurative, now rare) The action or an instance of leaving any state or condition.

act of flowing out

act of sending out — see also provide

legal term for offspring

conclusion

contested point in a dispute or debate — see also matter

financial instrument

problem or concern

issue (third-person singular simple present issues, present participle issuing, simple past and past participle issued)

  1. (intransitive) To flow out, to proceed from, to come out or from.
    The water issued forth from the spring.
    The rents issuing from the land permitted him to live as a man of independent means.
    • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV
      There was a very light off-shore wind and scarcely any breakers, so that the approach to the shore was continued without finding bottom; yet though we were already quite close, we saw no indication of any indention in the coast from which even a tiny brooklet might issue, and certainly no mouth of a large river such as this must necessarily be to freshen the ocean even two hundred yards from shore.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
      A powerful current of warm breath issued at regular intervals from the profound cavity of his mouth while in rhythmic resonance the loud strong hale reverberations of his formidable heart thundered rumblingly […]
  2. (intransitive) To rush out, to sally forth.
    The men issued from the town and attacked the besiegers.
  3. (intransitive) To extend into, to open onto.
    The road issues into the highway.
  4. (intransitive) To turn out in a certain way, to result in.
    • 2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin, published 2009, page 171:
      But, for Livy, Roman patriotism is overriding, and this issues, of course, in an antiquarian attention to the city's origins.
  5. (intransitive, archaic) To end up as, to turn out being, to become as a result.
  6. (law) To come to a point in fact or law on which the parties join issue. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  7. (transitive) To send out; to put into circulation.
  8. (transitive) To deliver for use.
    The prison issued new uniforms for the inmates.
    • 2023 June 8, Richard Collett, “He ran out of countries to visit, so he created his own”, in CNN‎[1]:
      Two years on, and while the Sultan of Slowjamastan has instigated more than a few bizarre laws (he’s outlawed the wearing of Crocs, for example), the Republic also has all the trappings of a fledgling nation-state. It issues its own passports, flies its own flag, prints its own currency (“the duble”), and has a national anthem that’s played on state occasions.
  9. (transitive) To deliver by authority.
    The court issued a writ of mandamus.
    • 2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian:
      Five minutes later, Southampton tried to mount their first attack, but Wickham sabotaged the move by tripping the rampaging Nathaniel Clyne, prompting the referee, Andre Marriner, to issue a yellow card. That was a lone blemish on an otherwise tidy start by Poyet’s team – until, that is, the 12th minute, when Vergini produced a candidate for the most ludicrous own goal in Premier League history.

to flow out; to proceed from

to sally forth

to turn out

to come to a point in fact or law on which the parties join issue

to send out; to put into circulation

Inherited from Middle French issue, from Old French issue (“exit”), from issu, past participle of issir, eissir.

issue f (plural issues)

  1. exit, way out
    une voie sans issue ― a dead end
    En cas de danger, empruntez l’issue de secours. ― In case of danger, use the emergency exit.
  2. outcome, result
    L’issue de cette bataille est incertaine. ― The outcome of this battle is uncertain.
  3. end, conclusion
    • 1852, Constitution faite en vertu des pouvoirs délégués par le Peuple français à Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte Par le vote des 20 et 21 décembre 1851 [Constitution Made by Virtue of the Powers Delegated by the French People to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte by the Vote of 20 and 21 December 1851], Paris: Imprimerie Schneider, pages 26–27:
      Le compte rendu des séances du Corps législatif par les journaux ou tout autre moyen de publication, ne consistera que dans la reproduction du procès-verbal, dressé, à l'issue de chaque séance, par les soins du président du Corps législatif.
      The report of meetings of the Legislative Corps given by journals or any other means of publication, shall only consist in the reproduction of proceedings, prepared, at the end of each meeting, under the supervision of the President of the Legislative Corps.

issue

  1. feminine singular of issu

Borrowed from Old French issue (“exit”), from issu, past participle of issir, eissir. Compare issen.

Forms with /ʃ/ mostly do not reflect palatalisation of /s/ (as in modern English); instead, they exist because Old French /s(s)/ was perceived as being phonetically closer to Middle English /ʃ/ than to /s/.

issue (plural issues)

  1. Exit, departure; the act of leaving or going out:
    1. (especially pathology) An outwards flow or discharge.
    2. (rare) A sortie (movement of soldiers towards the enemy).
  2. An exit; a way out of a place.
    1. (anatomy) A passage or channel out of the body.
    2. (medicine) An issue (incision for draining liquid in medieval medicine).
  3. A result or outcome arising from something.
    1. Offspring, family; one's children or descendants.
    2. (finance) Income, revenue, especially from a tax.
    3. The resolution of a dispute or conflict.
    4. (rare) One's (non-biological) successors or inheritors.
    5. (rare) One's preordained fate.
  4. (rare) An issue; a matter of dispute or controversy.
  5. The entrails and other waste products of a slaughtered animal.
  6. A display of frustration or annoyance; a vent.

issue

  1. alternative form of issuen

issue f

  1. feminine singular of the past participle of issir

issue oblique singular, f (oblique plural issues, nominative singular **issue, nominative plural issues)

  1. exit; way out
  2. departure (act of leaving)

Borrowed from English issue.

issue m (plural issues)

  1. (Puerto Rico) issue