On “Humane,” OED-Style

This one's for Justin, who was curious about the history of "humane" via the Oxford English Dictionary. The page isn't long so I can paste the entire thing, references and all. If you just read the references chronologically, without the definitions, you get a feel for the evolution of the word.

1. Characterized by such behaviour or disposition towards others as befits a man.  

     a. Gentle or kindly in demeanour or action; civil, courteous, friendly, obliging. Obs. (passing gradually into b.)

c1500 Melusine xx. 111 Be meke, humble, swete, curtoys & humayne, both vnto grete & lesse. 1530 PALSGR. 316/1 Humayne, courtoyse or belongyng to the nature of a man, humayn. 1555 EDEN Decades 149 Thinhabitauntes enterteined them very frendly [margin Humane people]. 1632 LITHGOW Trav. IX. 387 The people are very humane, ingenious, eloquent and pleasant. 1675 MARVELL Corr. Wks. 1872-5 II. 489 Humane civility. 1784 COWPER Task v. 469 That humane address And sweetness.

    b. Marked by sympathy with and consideration for the needs and distresses of others; feeling or showing compassion and tenderness towards human beings and the lower animals; kind, benevolent. (In early use not clearly distinguishable from a.)

1603 HOLLAND Plutarch's Mor. 1270 As his martiall valour is humane [], so his humanitie is valorous. a1774 PEARCE Serm. IV. xiv. (R.), Christianity (the most compassionate and humane religion in the world). 1802 M. EDGEWORTH Moral T. I. xv. 124 The humane spirit of the law, which supposes every man..innocent till proved.. guilty. 1814 D. H. O'BRIEN Captiv. & Escape 79 The jailer here..was the most humane man in that situation I ever knew. 1841 TRENCH Parables viii. (1877) 159 It is just in man to be merciful..to be humane is human. 1857 BUCKLE Civiliz. I. viii. 480 The humane and enlightened measures of Henry IV.

    c. Humane Society: title of a society for the rescue of drowning persons.
  The Royal Humane Society was founded in 1774.

1776 Minutes Soc. Recov. Persons app. drowned 8 May, That this Society in future be distinguished by the name of ‘The Humane Society’. 1782 R. A. BROMLEY (title) Sermon for the benefit of the Humane Society, on Luke viii. 52. 1784-95 W. HAWES (title) The Transactions of the Royal Humane Society, from 1774 to 1784, with an Appendix. 1819 BYRON Juan I. cxxx, The apparatus Of the Humane Society's beginning. 1834 MEDWIN Angler in Wales I. 219 The men of the Humane Society..came hurrying, with their apparatus for resuscitation. 1896 V. HUNT in Cosmopolis Sept. 617, ‘I chose the darkest place, farthest from the Humane Society's drags’.

    d. Applied to certain weapons or implements which inflict less pain than others of their kind, spec. applied to an implement for the painless slaughtering of cattle.

1904 Daily Chron. 24 May 5/3 The doctors style the bullets ‘humane’. 1920 Act 10 & 11 Geo. V c. 43 §(8) (h) Any..butcher..having in his possession..any humane killer for the purpose of such business. 1927 Daily Express 6 Aug. 7/3 That the humane killer was a dangerous instrument to those who used it. 1973 Times 11 Jan. 2/6 Three veterinary surgeons..had thought he must be put down. This was done..using a humane killer.
   

 2. Applied to those branches of study or literature (literæ humaniores) which tend to humanize or refine, as the ancient classics, rhetoric, and poetry; hence, elegant, polite. (See HUMANITY 4.)

1691 WOOD Ath. Oxon. I. 269 Edward Grant..the most noted Latinist and Grecian of his time. He was well skill'd in all kind of humane literature. 1701 tr. Le Clerc's Prim. Fathers (1702) 174 To learn Humane Learning; that is to say, to understand the Greek Poets and Orators and to write well in that Tongue. 1712 HENLEY Spect. No. 396 2 An uncommon Mastery in the more humane and polite Part of Letters. 1843 LYTTON Last Bar. IV. v, Thou art acquainted, doubtless..with the Humaner Letters. 1877 SYMONDS Renaiss. in Italy, Reviv. Learning ii. 71 note, The word Humanism has a German sound, and is in fact modern. Yet the generic phrase umanità for humanistic culture, and the name umanista for a professor of humane studies, are both pure Italian.

And while I'm at it, "humanely" is " In a humane manner; courteously (obs.); kindly, compassionately, benevolently." So courteous has transitioned to compassionate, which has gone through significant changes since the 1500s, and I'll detail them tomorrow.